dermoid, a. and n.
(ˈdɜːmɔɪd)
[mod. f. Gr. δέρµα skin + -oid: in mod.F. dermoïde. (Not on Gr. analogies: see dermatoid.)]
A. adj. Resembling or of the nature of skin. (Sometimes loosely, Of or belonging to the skin, dermal.)
dermoid cyst, ‘a sebaceous cyst having a wall with structure like that of the skin’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Cyst).
| 1818 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 460 Those nations who have the dermoid system highly coloured. 1872 Peaslee Ovar. Tumours 35 In the case of dermoid cysts, the more common contents are produced by the true skin, which constitutes a part or the whole of their internal surface. 1877 Burnett Ear 43 The skin of the canal is extended over the drum⁓head, forming its dermoid or outer layer. |
B. n. A dermoid cyst.
| 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 686 The intraperitoneal dermoids may be very numerous. 1906 Practitioner Nov. 664 These are the dermoids of the head and neck, or mediastinum; others, more complex ones, occur in the sexual organs. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxxi. 508 Sometimes a bridge of skin links the coloboma to the globe, or there is a dermoid astride the limbus at the site of the coloboma. |