Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In zoöl. and anat.:
  • noun The cuticle proper; the epidermis; the ectoderm; the exoskeleton; the superficial investment of the body, in so far as this is formed by or derived from the epiblastic cells or epiblast of the embryo, whatever its ulterior modification.
  • noun In infuserians, a comparatively dense envelop to which the outer wall of the body gives rise. Also cuticulum.
  • noun In annelids, as the earthworm, a thin and transparent though tough membrane, forming the outermost envelop of the body, and perforated by extremely minute vertical canals.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun the outer body wall of an insect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun zoology, botany A tough protective covering outside the epidermis of many invertebrates and plants; cuticle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the outer body wall of an insect

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin cutīcula ("skin, cuticle")

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Examples

  • This is known as the cuticula dentis, or Nasmyth’s membrane, and is believed to be the last-formed layer of enamel derived from the adamantoblasts, which has not become calcified.

    XI. Splanchnology. 2a. The Mouth 1918

  • L — n seemed a little confounded at this remark, and assured him it was nothing but a common excrescence of the cuticula, but that the bones were all sound below; for the truth of this assertion he appealed to the touch, desiring he would feel the part.

    The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 2004

  • Potest etiam cuticula, quae supra nervum est, sui, pulvisque rubens, qui jam dictus est, superaspergi, quae cura non est inutilis, aliquos enim non solum conglutinatas, sed etiam consolidatas, nostra cura prospeximus.

    Gilbertus Anglicus Medicine of the Thirteenth Century Henry Ebenezer Handerson

  • Potest quoque cuticula quae supra nervum est sui, et pulvis ruber superaspergatur.

    Gilbertus Anglicus Medicine of the Thirteenth Century Henry Ebenezer Handerson

  • Epiderma - is: the cellular layer of the skin, underlying and secreting the cuticula: incorrectly applied to the outer skin or cuticle.

    Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith

  • Hypoderm - is: the cellular layer which secretes the chitinous cuticula and in this sense = epidermis: specifically applied to the lining membrane of elytral and hemelytra.

    Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith

  • It did not seem at all, though I viewed it a good while as it was sucking, to thrust more of its nose into the skin then the very snout D, nor did it cause the least discernable pain, and yet the blood seem'd to run through its head very quick and freely, so that it seems there is no part of the skin but the blood is dispers'd into, nay, even into the _cuticula_; for had it thrust its whole nose in from D to CC, it would not have amounted to the supposed thickness of that _tegument_, the length of the nose being not more then a three hundredth part of an inch.

    Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon Robert Hooke 1669

  • & cortice coriaceo ut in reliquis mulcis obduftum; alterum vero latus quafi dilTeftum, & dein cuticula veluti tenuiore flavcTcente obduftum y calido & hu - mido coelo fe expandens ut gibbofius fiat; frigore autem & arida tempeftate planum magis evadit«

    Caroli a Linné equit. aur. de stella polari archiatri regii med. et botan. profess. Upsal. Acad ... 1788

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