epidermis
(ɛpɪˈdɛːmɪs)
[a. mod.L. epidermis, a. Gr. ἐπιδερµίς, f. ἐπί upon + δέρµα skin.]
1. Anat. The outer (non-vascular) layer of the skin of animals; the cuticle or scarf-skin.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §297 They never infect, but by such a Touch..as cometh within the Epidermis. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 156 They remain like peel'd Ewes, until their Faces have recovered a new Epidermis. 1774 Goldsmith Nat. Hist. (1862) I. xi. 215 The blackness lay in the epidermis, or scarf-skin. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 57 The epidermis is not vascular, and it merely defends the interior parts from injury. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg., St. Medard, It fail'd..to raise on the tough epidermis a lump or bump! 1860 Emerson Cond. Life Wks. (Bohn) II. 311 A squint, a pug-nose, mats of hair, the pigment of the epidermis, betray character. |
| transf. 1850 J. Leitch tr. Müller's Anc. Art §310. 353 The epidermis of the ancient statues is formed of the smearing with wax. 1819 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 260/2 The epidermis of the country has hardly as yet been scratched. |
b. = ectoderm or
epiblast.
| 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. An. i. 55 From the epidermis all cuticular and cellular exoskeletal parts, and all the integumentary glands are developed. |
2. Conch. The outer animal integument of a shell.
| 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 32 Epidermis, the marine covering, or incrustation, which is taken off to shew the native beauty of the shell. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 110 Shell..with a wrinkled brown or chestnut epidermis, and glossy white within. 1858 Geikie Hist. Boulder v. 91 The perfect shell..displayed its russet epidermis. |
3. Bot. ‘The true skin of a plant below the cuticle’ (
Treas. Bot.).
| 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 178 Wheat, oats, and many of the hollow grasses, have an epidermis principally of siliceous earth. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §iv. 89. 1870 Bentley Bot. 37 Tabular parenchyma is found in the epidermis. |