antipodal, a. and n.
(ænˈtɪpədəl)
[f. antipod-es + -al1.]
1. Of or pertaining to the antipodes; situated on the opposite side of the globe.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 306 The Americans are Antipodall unto the Indians. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 46 The antipodal New Holland. 1877 Shields Final Philos. 168 The Irish St. Virgilius in the ninth century, dared to advocate the theory of antipodal races. |
2. transf. Diametrically opposite (to anything).
| 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. iv. 10 So horrid and diabolical and so antipodal to both the Person and Spirit of Christ. 1846 Hawthorne Mosses ii. xii. (1864) 251 There was nothing so antipodal to his nature as this man's cold, unimaginative sagacity. 1874 Blackie Self-Cult. 70 Two such antipodal characters as Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle. |
3. spec. in Bot. Applied to cells at the base of the embryo sac, formed by division of the nucleus. Hence as n., a cell of this kind.
| 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 146/1 In some cases at the base of the embryo-sac a few cells are formed, which have been termed antipodal cells. 1898 Nat. Science June 375 The variety in the place of origin of the embryos from egg-cells, synergids, antipodal cells, or nucellus. 1946 Nature 10 Aug. 204/2 After fertilization, the antipodals also behave normally. |