serrate

American  

[ser-eyt, -it, ser-eyt, suh-reyt] / ˈsɛr eɪt, -ɪt, ˈsɛr eɪt, səˈreɪt /

adjective

1. Chiefly Biology. notched on the edge like a saw.

   a serrate leaf.

2. Numismatics. (of a coin) having a grooved edge.

3. serrated.

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verb (used with object)

serrated, serrating

1. to make serrate or serrated.

   He serrated the knives so they would cut meat easily.

serrate British  

adjective

1. (of leaves) having a margin of forward pointing teeth

2. having a notched or sawlike edge

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verb

1. (tr) to make serrate

Other Word Forms

• subserrate adjective
• unserrate adjective

Etymology

Origin of serrate

1590–1600; < Latin serrātus, equivalent to serr ( a ) saw + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

The color pink gets its name from flowers in the genus Dianthus, commonly known as carnations or pinks, a reference to the serrate, or “pinked,” edges of the delicate, sweetly fragrant flowers.

From Seattle Times • May 14, 2022

Even in their day, these reference-point songs weren’t quite serrate, or scabrous — they were the globular middle.

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2021

Or like a jagged, serrate viola through Shostakovich’s last, 15th, String Quartet – its abrasive intorsion like a barbed needle that speaks of desolation, exclusion from closure or repose.

From The Guardian • Aug. 26, 2018

A Victorian field guide, for example, describes Agrimonia in rather uncompromising terms: "Herbs with stipulate, pinnate, serrate leaves and terminal bracteate spine-like racemes of small yellow flowers."

From The Guardian • May 31, 2012

Twining shrub; leaves ovate-oblong, finely serrate, pointed.—Along streams and thickets.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa