subˈmarginal, a. (n.)
1. a. [sub- 11.] Situated near the margin of a body or organ; (of cells in the wing of a hymenopterous insect) lying behind the marginal cell.
| 1829 Loudon Encycl. Plants (1836) 877 Sori..marginal or submarginal. 1846 Dana Zooph. (1848) 142 Tentacles..submarginal. 1861 H. Hagen Syn. Neuroptera N. Amer. 343 Submarginal, just behind the margin. 1872 H. A. Nicholson Palæont. 107 Most commonly the anus is marginal, or is sub-marginal. |
b. n. A submarginal cell.
| 1896 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 30 There are but two submarginal cells;..The so-called second submarginal is morphologically the third, the true second of genera with three submarginals being absent. |
2. [sub- 19.] Of land: not capable of being farmed profitably.
| 1930 Economist 9 Aug. 272/1 It permits the survival of sub-marginal farms which plainly ought to be driven out of cultivation by the operation of economic forces. 1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 24/2 In the autumn of 1937 a long-term programme for agriculture was announced [in the U.S.]. It included:..crop insurance, retirement of submarginal land, and price adjustment payments. 1970 E. Flores in I. L. Horowitz Masses in Lat. Amer. ix. 336 Public lands could not be given to anybody simply because they were submarginal. |