demilune, n. (a.)
(ˈdɛmɪl(j)uːn)
[a. F. demilune, in 16th–17th c. demie lune half moon: cf. demi- 10.]
† 1. gen. A ‘half-moon’, a crescent. Obs.
| a 1734 North Lives (1808) I. 228 An immense mass of stone of the shape of a demilune. a 1734 ― Exam. iii. vii. §95 (1740) 578 These stately Figures were planted in a Demilune about an huge Fire. |
2. Fortif. An outwork resembling a bastion with a crescent-shaped gorge, constructed to protect a bastion or curtain.
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Demi-Lune, Half-Moon, in fortification, an outwork..consisting of two faces, and two little flanks. 1870 Daily News 26 Sept., Demi-lunes have been constructed before the gates of Paris. |
3. Physiol. demilunes (crescents) of Giannuzzi or Heidenhain: certain crescent-shaped protoplasmic bodies found in the salivary glands.
| 1883 Syd. Soc. Lex., Demilune of Giannuzzi, a granular mass of protoplasm, of semilunar form, which forms part of the cell-contents of the salivary cells. |
B. adj. Crescent-shaped, semilunar.
| 1885 Proc. R. Soc. 19 Mar. 215 The demilune cells and the serous cells, which are present..in the sub-maxillary gland of the cat. |