▪ I. digitate, a. (n.)
(ˈdɪdʒɪtət)
[ad. L. digitāt-us having fingers or toes, f. digit-us finger.]
1. Zool. Of quadrupeds: Having separate or divided digits or toes.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Solipeds and bisulcs usually being greater than the digitate. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 470/2 The characters of the Carnivora as distinct from the rest of the digitate animals. |
2. Divided into parts resembling fingers: spec. a. Bot. Of leaves, etc.: Having deep radiating divisions; now usually applied to compound leaves consisting of a number of leaflets all springing from one point, as in the horse-chestnut. (Hence in Comb., as digitate-pinnate.) b. Zool. Having, or consisting of, finger-like processes or divisions.
| 1788 J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. vi. (ed. 4) 201 The Folioles of which the digitate Leaf consists. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 373 Wings..cleft or digitate. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 423 Spikes digitate, spikelets minute—Cynodon. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §4. 101 Palmate or Digitate Leaves..in which the leaflets all stand on the summit of the petiole. |
† B. as n. A digitate quadruped (see A. 1). Obs.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Oviparous digitates, having diverse toes, and bringing forth eggs. |
▪ II. digitate, v.
(ˈdɪdʒɪteɪt)
[f. L. digit-us + -ate3: cf. digit v.]
† 1. trans. To point at with finger; fig. to point out, indicate. Obs. rare.
| 1658 J. Robinson Eudoxa viii. 46 The supine resting on Water onely by retention of Air..doth digitate a reason. |
2. intr. To become divided into finger-like parts.
| 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xix. 68 These again diverge or digitate in long broad leaves. 1840 G. Ellis Anat. 39 Processes of it..cross or digitate with the white bundles. |
3. trans. To express with the fingers. (nonce-use.)
| 1823 New Monthly Mag. VII. 498 They talk with their fingers and digitate quotations from Shakspeare. |