abscission
(æbˈsɪʃən)
[ad. L. abscissiōn-em n. of action f. abscindĕre; see abscind. Lit. ‘a tearing away,’ but confused with abscision, q.v.]
1. The action or process of abscinding; a cutting off or violent separation. lit. and fig.
| 1612 Woodall Surgeon's Mate Wks. 1653, 387 This abscission is not done without great danger of death. 1655 Fuller Church Hist. vi. 290 Abscission is the onely plaster for such an incurable Gangrene. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 88 ¶12 The abscission of a vowel is undoubtedly vicious when it is strongly sounded. 1878 Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 375 Abscission is the removal of that portion of the eyeball situated in front of the attachments of the recti muscles. |
† 2. The state of being cut off; separation and removal. Obs.
| 1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Pet. i. 8. (1865) 97 Bearing no fruit, they are cut away from the vine; incision is blessed, but abscission most wretched. 1649 Jer. Taylor Great Exemp. i. §8. 114 He denounced judgement & great severities to..impenitents, even abscission and fire unquenchable. |
3. Bot. The natural separation of parts following the disorganization of the cells in the absciss layer. Hence, abscission layer = absciss layer.
| 1889 E. S. Bastin College Bot. 403 Abscision [sic], a term applied to that mode of the detachment of spores in Fungi which consists in the disorganization of the zone connecting the spores with the hypha. 1916 Bot. Gaz. LXI. 225 That this separation of walls actually obtains can be proved by taking rather thick sections of suitable material and..pulling the portions separated by the abscission layer apart on the slide. 1934 [see absciss n. 2]. 1946 Nature 3 Aug. 147/2 Abscission in shot-hole disease of peach. 1950 Metcalfe & Chalk Anat. of Dicotyledons I. 545 Before flowers or fruits fall off, a definite abscission layer is formed. |