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Synonyms

plicate

American  
[plahy-keyt, -kit, plahy-keyt] / ˈplaɪ keɪt, -kɪt, ˈplaɪ keɪt /

adjective

  1. Also plicated. folded like a fan; pleated.

verb (used with object)

plicated, plicating

  1. Surgery.  to perform plication on.

plicate British  
/ ˈplaɪkeɪt /

adjective

  1. having or arranged in parallel folds or ridges; pleated

    a plicate leaf

    plicate rock strata
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • plicately adverb
  • plicateness noun

Etymology

Origin of plicate

1690–1700; < Latin plicātus, past participle of plicāre to fold, ply 2; -ate 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He has a great eye for detail, but he also has a touch of the epiphenomenal imbroglios: "we listened to the muffled crepitations coming from inside"; eyebrows "plicate" foreheads.

From The Guardian

Seeds globose or angled.—Stems terete, from coated bulbs, with few plicate leaves, and few fugacious flowers from 2-bracted spathes.

From Project Gutenberg

The internal coat was plicated, as if too large for the lumen.

From Project Gutenberg

Sesquidū′plicate, being in the ratio of 2� to 1, or 5 to 2.

From Project Gutenberg

It is in a great mountain-chain that the extraordinary complication of plicated and faulted structures in the crust of the earth can be most impressively beheld.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.