imbricate
Americanadjective
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overlapping in sequence, as tiles or shingles on a roof.
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of, relating to, or resembling overlapping tiles, as decoration or drawings.
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Biology. overlapping like tiles, as scales or leaves.
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characterized by or as if by overlapping shingles.
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
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architect relating to or having tiles, shingles, or slates that overlap
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botany (of leaves, scales, etc) overlapping each other
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of imbricate
1650–60; < Late Latin imbricātus tiled with imbrices, shaped like such a tile or tiling, equivalent to imbric- (stem of imbrex ) imbrex + -ātus -ate 1
Vocabulary lists containing imbricate
"Against Nature," Vocabulary from the argument
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The leaves are small and imbricate, and are borne on flattened branches, which are apt to be mistaken for the leaves.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 4 "Aram, Eugene" to "Arcueil" by Various
Flowers regular, 5-merous, the sepals imbricate in the bud, persistent.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
In Convolvulaceae, while the corolla is twisted, and has its parts arranged in a circle, the calyx is imbricate, and exhibits a spiral arrangement.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various
The imbricate and the convolute modes sometimes vary one into the other, especially in the corolla.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
P. 3-5 cm. tough, shell-shaped, imbricate, connate behind, longitudinally corrugated with ribs, floccoso-scrupose, tan, edge incurved, entire; g. broad, torn, white; sp. glob.
From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by George Massee
In addition to the Grand Canyon, there’s Bears Ears, a pair of burnt-sienna buttes revered by Indigenous groups; and Grand Staircase-Escalante, an imbricated series of ascending rock layers punctuated with canyons and cliffs.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2022
Space travel was imbricated with science fiction, with dreams of heroic courage that continue to fuel unscientific fantasies.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 24, 2020
Volutes, asportation, imbricated, Mnemosyne and phthisic are a few of the others.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2015
I’ve been rummaging in my skull the past few days for the skeleton key that might spring open the interlocking chambers of rap phenomenon Kendrick Lamar’s intricate, imbricated, and self-implicating new album.
From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2015
Spreading on the ground, moss-like; leaves very small, alternate, almost imbricated on the branches, ovate, very thick; petals yellow.—Escaped from cultivation to rocky roadsides, etc.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
In this spikelet the rachilla bears a number of glumes alternating and imbricating.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by K. Rangachari
Flowers at the extremities of the branches, 1½ in. long, composed of numerous imbricating, scale-like petals, curving inwards, and coloured crimson.
The leaf-sheath is smooth, imbricating, 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches long.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by K. Rangachari
The leaves are for the most part palmately-lobed, and the flowers are regular, consisting of five sepals, five imbricating petals, alternating with five glandules at their base, ten stamens and a beaked ovary.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 7 "Geoponici" to "Germany" by Various
Plant-body a thallus, dichotomous or subpalmately branching, usually innovating from the apex or beneath it, more or less thickened in the middle, and bearing numerous rootlets beneath and usually colored or imbricating scales.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
