globule
(ˈglɒbjuːl)
Also 7 globul, 8 globle.
[a. F. globule, ad. L. globulus (dim. of globus globe), round lump, ball, pill.]
1. A spherical body of small size; a round drop (of water, etc.). Biol. Applied to many minute spherical structures, e.g. the corpuscles of the blood.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. 44 In that Meal-like Powder of Mercurius Cosmeticus, were globules of ☿ plainly discernable. 1682 T. Gibson Anat. 100 It seems to be compacted out of many Globules or knots included in a common membrane. 1702 E. Baynard Cold Baths ii. (1709) 322 The constituent Parts of that Fluid [the Blood], viz. the Globles, being broken and destroy'd. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 68 When two particles of quicksilver are brought into apparent contact they may be made to unite and form one globule. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic vi. (1833) 155 A vertical stratum of vapour, consisting of exceedingly minute globules of water. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. v. 251 The saturation..of the snow..enables the air to form itself into globules. |
| Comb. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 693/1 The yolk is..marked with two rows of small spots, globule-like. |
2. Bot. The antheridium or male reproductive organ of
Characeæ (see
quots.).
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 326 In the axillæ of the uppermost whorls.. the organs of reproduction take their origin; they are of two kinds, one called the nucule, the other the globule. 1858 Carpenter Veg. Phys. §776 The fructification of the Characeae is of two kinds, nucules, and globules, both of them seated in the axils of the branchlets. |
3. A small pill or pilule, such as is used in homœopathy.
| 1849 Lytton Caxtons iii. v, My father had not as much pride as a homœopathist could have put into a globule. 1874 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xci. 3 Too many among us..place more reliance in a phial or a globule than in the Lord and giver of life. 1876 Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life (1879) II. viii. 467 Prescribe sometimes for myself the globules. |
Hence
ˈglobuled ppl. a., formed into a globule.
| 1806 J. Grahame Birds Scot. 4 The dew that globuled lies upon her mottled plumes. |