▪ I. brachiate, a.
(ˈbrækɪeɪt, ˈbreɪkɪət)
[ad. L. brāchiāt-us armed, f. brāchi-um an arm: see -ate2.]
lit. Having arms; in Bot. having branches in pairs running out nearly at right angles with the stem and crossing each other alternately.
| 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 169 When the branches diverge nearly at right angles from the stem, they are said to be brachiate. 1880 Gray Bot. Text-bk 399. |
▪ II. brachiate, v.
(ˈbrækɪeɪt)
[As from brachiate a.; see -ate3.]
intr. (See quot. 1948.) So ˈbrachiating ppl. a. and vbl. n.; brachiˈation, the act of brachiating; ˈbrachiator, an animal that brachiates.
| 1899 Proc. Zool. Soc. 7 Mar. 306 The hand of the Chimpanzee is adapted for brachiation. Ibid. 305 The arm of the Chimpanzee is that of the brachiators, anthropoids like the Orang and Gibbon, which use the arms as one of the main organs of locomotion. 1932 J. S. Huxley Probl. Rel. Growth vii. 238 Man..is undoubtedly descended from brachiating ancestors with relatively long arms. 1934 Webster Brachiate v.i. 1948 Weiner in New Biol. V. 70 Their [sc. apes'] ability to brachiate, that is to swing their way from branch to branch by their arms. 1957 Antiquity XXXI. 191 They lacked the brachiating specializations of modern apes. 1962 D. Morris Biology of Art v. 143 A hanging and swinging form of locomotion termed brachiation. |