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:
Leaves round-quadrate, closely imbricate, deeply and obtusely 2–3-cleft; involucral leaves 3–4-cleft, connate at base, subserrate.
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
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
Thallus oblong with rounded lobes, distinctly areolate and porose, with imbricate sublunate scales beneath; gemmæ in crescent-shaped receptacles.
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
P. subsessile, imbricate, pilei tongue-shaped, glabrous, subrugose, rufous then tan, edge involute, entire; g. closely crowded, rufescent. vulpinus, Fr.
From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by Massee, George
The pileus is corky, woody, hard, effuso-reflexed, imbricate, concrescent, subtomentose, then scabrous, uneven, reddish-yellow, then subferruginous, the margin acute.
From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha
Long and lithe, complexly imbricated, strange: Here is contact.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2020
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 spicate or racemose, the involucre well 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
The inflorescence consists of a solitary spike with closely imbricating spikelets.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
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
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.
The leaf-sheath is smooth, imbricating, 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches long.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
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.
