‖ flagellum
(fləˈdʒɛləm)
Pl. flagella.
[L. flagellum whip, scourge.]
1. In humorously pedantic use: A whip, scourge.
| 1807 ‘Ben Block’ (title) Flagellum flagellated. 1830 Lytton P. Clifford iii, Boxing-gloves, books, fly-flanking flagellum. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg., Ingol. Penance, The Knight..Received the first taste of the Father's flagellum. |
2. a. Bot. A runner or creeping shoot.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxviii. (1495) 682 The hyghest braunches of a vyne hyghte Flagella.] 1887 Bentley Bot. (ed. 5) 117 The Runner or Flagellum..is an elongated, slender, prostrate branch, sent off from the base of the stem, and giving off at its extremity leaves, and roots, and thus producing a new plant. |
b. Zool. and Biol. A lash-like appendage.
| 1852 Dana Crust. i. 227 Outer antennæ as long as the front, flagellum 10-jointed. 1878 Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 79 The flagella..are modifications of the cilia. 1885 Athenæum 12 Dec. 773/3 A cholera bacillus showing a flagellum at either end. |