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pulvinate

American  
[puhl-vuh-neyt] / ˈpʌl vəˌneɪt /
Also pulvinated

adjective

  1. having the shape of a cushion; resembling a cushion; cushion-shaped.

  2. having a pulvinus.

  3. Architecture. Also (of a frieze or the like) having a convex surface from top to bottom.


pulvinate British  
/ ˈpʌlvɪˌneɪt /

adjective

  1. architect (of a frieze) curved convexly; having a swelling

  2. botany

    1. shaped like a cushion

    2. (of a leafstalk) having a pulvinus

"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

  • pulvinately adverb
  • unpulvinate adjective
  • unpulvinated adjective

Etymology

Origin of pulvinate

1815–25; < Latin pulvīnātus cushioned, equivalent to pulvīn ( us ) cushion + -ātus -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.

Pulvinate, cushioned, or shaped like a cushion.

From Project Gutenberg

P. pulvinate, rather wavy, glabrous, whitish, disc tinged flesh-colour; g. decur. crowded, white; s. very short, solid, hard.

From Project Gutenberg

P. pulvinate, cuticle thick, brown with greenish tinge, virgate with minute adpr. fibrils; g. thick, grey, with flat, transverse, more or less branched veins; s. solid, narrowed below, fibrillosely striate, with minute dark granules above, pale; 10-12 � 6. hordum, F. P. exp. subumb. grey, dry, glabrous then breaking up into squarrose scales; g. rather distant, becoming greyish; s. 6-8 cm. whitish, glabrous; sp. virgatum, Fr.

From Project Gutenberg

In the more complex phase the sporangia are heaped together in a pulvinate mass in which the peridia appear as boundaries of minute cells.

From Project Gutenberg

Cortex less calcareous porose, yellowish brown, fructification definite, pulvinate F. rufa 3.

From Project Gutenberg