spinous, a.
(ˈspaɪnəs)
[f. spine n.1 + -ous, or ad. L. spīnōs-us spinose a.]
1. fig. Resembling or suggestive of a thorn or thorns in respect of sharpness and aridity; unpleasant and difficult or unprofitable to handle or deal with. (Cf. spinose a. 1.)
| a 1638 Mede Disc. Script. (1642) 92 This I take to be the true and genuine meaning of this passage,..nor needeth it any spinous Criticisms for its explication. 1660 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. Relig. iii. xi. 535 They would not judge Religion a thing full of spinous questions and irresolvable difficulties. 1694 Strype Mem. Cranmer ii. xiii. 196 Who had himself..vindicated the truth from the spinous and confused cavils of Sophisters. 1821 Lamb Elia i, Old Benchers Inner T., Many a sarcastic growl did the latter cast out—for Coventry had a rough spinous humour. |
2. Bot. Furnished with spines or thorns; thorn-bearing, thorny.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 109 Larger leaves; not spinous. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 199 The Spinous tribe of herbs are many. 1776 J. Lee Introd. Bot. Explan. Terms 380 Spinosus, spinous, armed with Thorns. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1818) I. 288 Insects, which it first impales alive on the thorns of the sloe and other spinous plants. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. I. vi. 157 With spinous involucres inclosing an eatable sweet nut. 1887 J. Ball Nat. S. Amer. 32 One of the spinous species of Solanum. |
3. Armed or covered with spines or slender sharp-pointed excrescences; spinigerous. Chiefly Zool.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) III. i. i. 13 Thus there are three grand divisions in the fish kind; the cetaceous, the cartilaginous, and the spinous. 1822 J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 147 The corselet..is sometimes spinous,..but it is generally smooth. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 192 Fishes..whose operculum or preoperculum..[has] dentated or spinous edges. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 271 Their surface [is] smooth, rough, or spinous. |
b. In specific names, as spinous loach, spinous shark, spinous spider-crab, spinous tortoise.
| 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 1 The Spinous Tortoise..seems common to the Mediterranean. 1839 Yarrell Brit. Fishes Suppl. II. 54 The Spinous Shark. Echinorhinus spinosus. 1862 Couch Brit. Fishes I. 54 The Spinous Shark was not known to naturalists before the latter part of the last..century. 1881 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 133 The Spinous Loach (Cobitis tænia) is a rarer fish in this country. 1882 Ibid. VI. 198 The Spinous Spider Crab (Maia squinado). |
4. Having the form of a spine or thorn; slender and sharp-pointed.
| 1758 Monro Anat. Bones (ed. 6) 121 The fifteenth is the spinous [suture]; which is in the middle of the lower part of the nostrils. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 414 Four naked seeds, with always more or less of spinous bristles..on their foliage. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 409 Tail forked, with a spinous ray on each side. 1854 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club III. 164 The scales on the back were..raised to a sharp edge, but not spinous nor curved backwards. |
b. spinous process, a process or apophysis of a spine-like form, esp. one of those on the vertebræ.
| 1732 Monro Anat. (ed. 2) 201 The spinous Processes of the Vertebræ of the Back become gradually longer. 1797 Abernethy Surg. Ess. iii. 28, I could..touch the transverse spinous process of the sphenoid bone. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 115 The Anterior and Inferior spinous process of the ilium. 1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxx. 416 There was no tenderness over the spinous processes of the vertebræ. 1873 Mivart Elem. Anat. 179 Separated by a small notch from a strongly marked prominence called the posterior inferior spinous process. |
5. Composed of spines.
| 1790 T. Bewick Hist. Quadrup. 423 The Hedge-Hog..is provided by Nature with a spinous armour. |
6. Anat. Of or belonging to the spine.
| 1826 S. Cooper First Lines Surg. 216 A rupture of the spinous, or some other artery of the dura mater. |
7. Comb., as spinous-finned, spinous-pointed, spinous-serrate, spinous-tailed, spinous-tipped, spinous-toothed.
| 1785 Latham Gen. Synop. Birds III. ii. 555 Spinous-tailed Teal..inhabits Cayenne and Guiana. 1828 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 18 Leaves awl-shaped, spinous-pointed, rough. 1851 Gosse Nat. Hist., Fishes 200 The Soft-finned Fishes are, in general, inferior to the Spinous-finned in [etc.]. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 185 Leaves alternate, usually spinous-toothed. Ibid. 191 Bracts..acuminate or spinous-tipped. |
Hence ˈspinousness.
| 1846 Patterson Zool. 48 It varies also in the length of the ray-spines, the spinousness of the disc and the relative proportions of rays and discs. |