▪ I. imbricate, a. (n.)
(ˈɪmbrɪkət)
[ad. L. imbricāt-us, pa. pple. of imbricāre to form like a gutter-tile, to cover with rain-tiles, f. imbrex, imbric-em.]
† 1. Formed like a gutter-tile or pantile. Obs.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Imbricate, square and bent like a roof or gutter-Tile, which the Latines call Imbrex; also covered with such a Tile. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd., The nailes are in all that have toes; but the ape's are imbricate [= Pliny, H.N. xi. xlv. 101 ungues imbricati]. |
2. Covered with or composed of scales or scalelike parts overlapping like roof-tiles; e.g. said of the scaly covering of reptiles and fishes, of leaf-buds, the involucre of Compositæ, etc.
| 1656 [see 1]. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (1788) 25. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. vi. 68 One of the most common forms also of the calyx in this class [Compound Flowers], is the imbricate or that which is made up of several rows of folioles, lying over each other like tiles on a roof. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 320 [Antennae] Imbricate, when the summit of each joint is incumbent upon the base of that which precedes it. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. Introd. 24 In Penæaceæ both valvate and imbricate æstivation exists. |
b. Of leaves, scales, etc.: Overlapping like tiles.
| 1796 P. Russell Acc. Ind. Serpents 7 (T.) Two rows..of larger scales, ovate and imbricate. 1852 Dana Crust. i. 483 Branchiæ..composed each of imbricate plates in two series. |
3. = imbricated 4.
| 1890 Cent. Dict. s.v., An imbricate pattern. |
B. as n. A reptile, fish, or other animal covered with imbricated scales.
| 1862 Dana Man. Geol. vii. 277 The Devonian ganoids are of three kinds..Imbricates having the scales arranged like shingles. |
▪ II. imbricate, v.
(ˈɪmbrɪkeɪt)
[f. L. imbricāt-, ppl. stem of imbricāre: see prec.]
1. trans. To place so as to overlap like roof-tiles. Also with together (in fig. sense).
| 1784 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1786) Notes 315 Trains of peacocks..whose quills were set in a long stem, so as to imbricate the plumes in the gradations of their natural growths. 1874 Coues Birds N.W. 435 Each feather is thus folded or imbricated over the next succeeding. |
2. trans. and absol. To overlap like tiles.
| 1820 Hogg Treat. in Beck's Florist (1850) 272 The petals [of a carnation] should be regularly disposed alike on every side, imbricating each other. 1854 Woodward Mollusca ii. 213 Flattened prisms..arranged..obliquely to the surfaces of the shell, the interior of which is imbricated by their out⁓crop. 1873 Sir C. W. Thomson Depths of Sea iv. 164 In all essential family characters they agree. The plates imbricate in the same directions and on the same plan. |