unguiculate

American  

[uhng-gwik-ye-lit, -leyt] / ʌŋˈgwɪk yɛ lɪt, -ˌleɪt /

adjective

1. bearing or resembling a nail or claw.

2. Zoology. belonging or pertaining to the former superorder Unguiculata, comprising mammals having nails or claws, as distinguished from hoofs.

3. Botany. having a clawlike base, as certain petals.

---

noun

1. an unguiculate animal.

unguiculate British  

/ -ˌleɪt, ʌŋˈɡwɪkjʊlɪt /

adjective

1. (of mammals) having claws or nails

2. (of petals) having a clawlike base

---

noun

1. an unguiculate mammal

Etymology

Origin of unguiculate

1795–1805; < New Latin unguiculātus, equivalent to Latin unguicul ( us ) fingernail ( ungu ( is ) ( unguis ) + -i- -i- + -culus -cule ¹ ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Of the unguiculate animals, some are ruminant, with two claws only, as the camel; others are carnivorous, with more numerous claws, as cats, dogs, polecats.

From Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History by MacGillivray, William

Perianth withering-persistent, spreading; the petal-like oblong or ovate sepals 1–2-glandular near the more or less narrowed but not unguiculate base, which is either free, or united and coherent with the base of the ovary.

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

Corolla of 4 unguiculate petals, between white and straw color, 1′ long.

From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Thomas, Jerome Beers

Foot broad, with two slender posterior appendages; operculum unguiculate.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various

Beak straight, the tip hooked, unguiculate: 8 species.

From Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History by MacGillivray, William