Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having the shape of a needle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the shape of a slender needle or stout bristle; having a sharp point like a needle: as, an acicular prism, like those of stibnite; an acicular bill, as that of a humming-bird. Other forms are aciculate, aciculated, aciculiform, and aciculine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Needle-shaped; slender like a needle or bristle, as some leaves or crystals; also, having sharp points like needles.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Needle -shaped; slender like a needle orbristle . - adjective Having sharp points like needles.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective narrow and long and pointed; as pine leaves
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One I like to point to as an example is "acicular" which goes:
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Soon Birdie and myself were a mass of acicular crystals; it was a true easterly fog.
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Signs of volcanic activity are present more or less throughout its whole depth, and for some distance round its margin, in the form of steam cracks, jets of sulphurous vapour, blowing cones, accumulating deposits of acicular crystals of sulphur, etc., and the pit itself is constantly rent and shaken by earthquakes.
The Hawaiian Archipelago Isabella Lucy 2004
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One fissure was completely lined with exquisite, acicular crystals of sulphur, which perished with a touch.
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan Isabella Lucy 2004
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Hyoscyamine crystallizes in the acicular form, with greater difficulty even than atropine, it also forms less compact crystals.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 Various
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Professors Babcock and Munroe, of Chicago, call the plants either the Hydrogastrum of Rabenhorst, or the Botrydium of the Micrographic Dictionary, the crystalline acicular bodies being deemed parasitic.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 Various
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Those of the beryl we sometimes find quite flat, as though they had been compressed by force: then again they are acicular and of extraordinary length, considering their slender diameter.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 27, June, 1873 Various
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It can readily be recognised by its acicular, needle-like leaves, and more particularly by its peculiarly shaped seed vessel, which resembles the pattern on an old-fashioned Indian shawl.
Getting Gold: a practical treatise for prospectors, miners and students
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Paris, Medallist in Chemistry and Botany, etc. Having found, in small quantities, alcohols of the C_ {n} H_ {2n-7} series, last summer, in the stem, acicular leaves, and cones of _Pinus sylvestris_, I wish in this paper to say a few words on the subject.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 Various
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In the same manner I treated the acicular leaves, and portions of the stem separately, both being previously cut up into small pieces, and from both I obtained phenol.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 443, June 28, 1884 Various
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