imbricate
Americanadjective
-
overlapping in sequence, as tiles or shingles on a roof.
-
of, relating to, or resembling overlapping tiles, as decoration or drawings.
-
Biology. overlapping like tiles, as scales or leaves.
-
characterized by or as if by overlapping shingles.
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
-
architect relating to or having tiles, shingles, or slates that overlap
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Learn to Speak Fluent Botany
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Creeping, without ventral runners; leaves pale green, imbricate, spreading, roundish-ovate, obtuse.
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
Calyx 5-parted, valvate in the staminate flowers, imbricate in the pistillate.
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
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 Miron Elisha Hard
Glabrous, leafy, 2–5° high; leaves oblong, sinuate-pinnatifid and spinulosely dentate, ciliate; heads in an open panicle; involucre more imbricate; flowers yellow.—Minn.,
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
The head of this voracious animal is flat and imbricate; several of the under teeth enter into and pass through the upper jaw; the nape is naked; on the tail are two rough lateral lines.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
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
Its sound centers on her leaping and insinuating vocals, more versatile than ever, which fly acrobatically above her rivers of dazzling contrapuntal harp runs and imbricated layers of piano and analog synthesizers.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2015
Volutes, asportation, imbricated, Mnemosyne and phthisic are a few of the others.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2015
Sepals distinct or nearly so, imbricated in the bud.
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
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
Branches are many, short, crowded, densely clothed from the base with sessile, imbricating, much compressed deflexed spikelets.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by K. Rangachari
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 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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
