retractile
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- nonretractile adjective
- nonretractility noun
- retractility noun
- subretractile adjective
Etymology
Origin of retractile
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.
The reader will remember that in the Vorticella previously described, the bells stood upon stalks that were very flexible, and retractile by means of a muscle running down their length.
From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Slack, Henry J.
Once upon a time, many, many hundred years ago, the dog did use its claws; they were then retractile.
From The Wonders of the Jungle, Book Two by Ghosh, Sarath Kumar
The single prosthomere carries the retractile tentacles as its “parapodia.”
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various
The creature itself stands upon a retractile foot-stalk, and thrusts out above its battlements a large head, with four leaf-like expansions surrounded by cilia.
From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Slack, Henry J.
The cat's claws are of course retractile, as I have just described to you.
From The Wonders of the Jungle, Book Two by Ghosh, Sarath Kumar
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.
