cuticle
(ˈkjuːtɪk(ə)l)
Also 7 -cule.
[ad. L. cutīcula, dim. of cutis the skin. Boyle has cuticule (quot. 1685 below), which is the form in Fr.]
1. a. The epidermis or scarf-skin of the body.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 61 The Scarfe-skin or Cuticle being voide of sense itselfe. Ibid. 70 The Cuticle, which the Greekes call Epidermis, because it runnes vppon the surface of the true skinne. 1685 Boyle Enq. Notion Nat. 200 The Cuticule or Scarf-skin. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 37 Let us consider how we can separate the Cuticle from the true Cutis. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 102/2 The cuticle of these animals [i.e. amphibia] is frequently shed. |
b. Applied to other superficial skins or integuments; e.g. the transparent membrane which envelopes annelids.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., Under it [the tongue of serpents] is a cuticle, which like a vesicle covereth the teeth. 1872 Huxley Phys. xii. 278 The shaft of a hair of the head consists of a central pith..of a cortical substance surrounding this..and of an outer cuticle. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 198 The cuticle [of the earthworm] is thin, transparent, and variable in thickness in different regions of the body. |
c. The cell-wall of Infusoria.
d. The dead skin at the base of a finger-nail or toe-nail. Also attrib.
| 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 538/1 Cuticle knife, ivory handle. Ibid. 538/2 Cuticle scissors... Cuticle cream for softening the skin at base of nail. 1919 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Jan. 67/2 Cutex, the Cuticle Remover, comes in 35c, 65c and $1.25 bottles. 1962 Woman 1 Dec. 9/2 Every night, take care of your cuticles. Ibid., Apply cuticle cream. 1966 Vogue Nov. 61/2 Everything needed for a manicure..cuticle remover, orange stick, emery board. |
2. Bot. Formerly, the primary integumentary tissue or epidermis; now, a superficial film formed of the cutinized outer layers of the superficial walls of the epidermal cells.
The later usage was introduced by Ad. Brongniart (Ann. des Sci. Nat., Sér. 2, I. 65). It appears in Eng. in Henfrey's transl. of von Mohl's Vegetable Cell 1852, p. 34.
| 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. ii. §2 That extreme thin Cuticle which is spread over the Lobes of the Seed. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 19 The cuticle is formed so as to accommodate itself..to the natural growth of the plant. 1858 Carpenter Veg. Phys. §1 The presence of a kind of skin or cuticle, which envelops the whole. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 29 Epidermis, outer skin, is the name given to the layer of cells which is covered by and produces the cuticle. |
† 3. transf. ‘A thin skin formed on the surface of any liquor’ (J.); a film or thin coating.
| 1657 G. Starkey Helmont's Vind. 314 This [salt] being boyled to a Cuticle will shoot like to any other Salt. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 34 Without breaking thorow the tender cuticle and film of so brittle and thin a substance [an air-bubble]. 1704 Newton Optics (J.), When any saline liquor is evaporated to cuticle, and let cool, the salt concretes in regular figures. |