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:
Sepals and petals colored alike, in three or more rows of three, imbricate.
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 Gray, Asa
Palpi very short, curved, hardly projecting beyond the head, closely compressed on the tongue, entirely covered with close imbricate scales, the tip naked.
From Zoological Illustrations, Volume I or Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by Swainson, William
The spikelets are about 1/8 inch, imbricate, a sessile and a stalked one from the top of each joint, greenish or purple.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
Antheridia 3–20, in the axils of small saccate leaves, which are scarcely imbricate or crowded into terminal heads.
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 Gray, Asa
Diagram of a flower of Linden, showing the calyx valvate and corolla imbricate in the bud, etc.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa
The pronouncer told her it meant a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves with imbricated petals.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2021
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
Heads corymbed or panicled, the involucre little imbricated.
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 Gray, Asa
Spikelets are closely imbricating in two series, sessile, solitary, the upper reduced to a small pedicel 1- to 2-flowered, the lowest few on the spike, imperfect, male or neuter.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
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
Flowers at the extremities of the branches, 1½ in. long, composed of numerous imbricating, scale-like petals, curving inwards, and coloured crimson.
From Cactus Culture for Amateurs Being Descriptions of the Various Cactuses Grown in This Country, With Full and Practical Instructions for Their Successful Cultivation by Watson, W.
In this spikelet the rachilla bears a number of glumes alternating and imbricating.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
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 Gray, Asa
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.
