arborescent, a.
(ɑːbəˈrɛsənt)
[ad. L. arborēscent-em, pr. pple. of arborēsc-ĕre: see arboresce and -ent.]
1. Tree-like in growth; approaching the size of a tree, or having a woody stem.
| 1675 Grew Anat. Trunks i. §32 Examples of Trees or Arborescent Plants. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xi. 244 An arborescent grass, very like a bamboo. 1859 Tennent Ceylon II. ix. vii. 553 Coco-nut palms and arborescent mimosas. |
2. Tree-like in general appearance, or in the arrangement of parts; branching like a tree.
| 1679 Phil. Collect. XII. 6 A Clift all interwoven with Arborescent Marchasites. 1766 Pennant Brit. Zool. VI. 67 (Jod.) Asterias arborescent with five rays. 1775 Ellis in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 17 The arborescent figures of the Cornish native copper. 1881 Mivart Cat 233 An arborescent network of veins. |
b. in Arch. (See quot.)
| 1849 Freeman Archit. 260 Not growing out of their support as in the arborescent Gothic. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. I. xxi. §27 All good ornamentation is thus arborescent, as it were, one class of it branching out of another and sustained by it. |
c. fig. Manifoldly branching.
| 1867 E. F. Burr Ecce Cœlum vi. 167 God whose unity is arborescent with endless varieties of beauty and power. |