flocculent, a.
(ˈflɒkjʊlənt)
[f. L. flocc-us flock n.2 + -ulent.]
1. Resembling flocks or tufts of wool; consisting of loose woolly masses.
| 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 249 A flocculent precipitate of magnesia. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 65 A congeries of flocculent fibres. 1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 270 [He] succeeded in sending up some pretty light floculent cirri. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §343 The mushroom is the large fleshy fruit arising from the flocculent mycelium, or ‘spawn’. |
2. Of the atmosphere: Holding particles of aqueous vapour in suspension: cf. flocculus 1.
| 1878 Smithsonian Inst. Rep. 510 A flocculent condition of the atmosphere, due to the varying density produced by the mingling of aqueous vapor. |
3. Covered with a short woolly substance; downy.
| 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 125 Leaves..more or less pubescent or flocculent below when young. 1874 Coues Birds N.W. 265 For the first two or three days they [the chicks] are only densely flocculent on the under parts. |
Hence ˈflocculently adv.
| 1885 Manch. Weekly Times Suppl. 8/1 The petioles were flocculently woolly. |