Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A body structure or organ resembling a comb, such as a pleated vascularized structure in a bird's eye that projects into the vitreous humor from the retina.
- noun A scallop of the genus Pecten.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In zoology and anatomy, a comb or comb-like part or process; something pectinated; a pectination.
- In conchology: [capitalized] [NL.] The typical genus of the family Pectinidæ, having a regular, suborbicular, auriculate shell, with approximate umbones, and radiating ribs compared to the teeth of a comb; the scallops.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A vascular pigmented membrane projecting into the vitreous humor within the globe of the eye in birds, and in many reptiles and fishes; -- also called
marsupium . - noun The pubic bone.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any species of bivalve mollusks of the genus Pecten, and numerous allied genera (family
Pectinidæ ); a scallop. SeeScallop . - noun (Zoöl.) The comb of a scorpion. See
Comb , 4 (b).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun anatomy, obsolete The
bones in thehand between the wrist and the fingers. - noun anatomy The
pubic bone. - noun zoology One of the genus
Pecten ofscallops .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The pecten is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more presently.
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What birds have instead is a strange structure inside their eye called the pecten oculi, which looks kind of like an old steam radiator dangling into the vitreous humor, which seems to be a metabolic specialization to secrete oxygen and nutrients into the vitreous to supply by diffusion the retina.
More creationist misconceptions about the eye - The Panda's Thumb 2010
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Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (mentha puligium), and probably alludes to the pecten.
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Ad extinguendum coitum, ungantur membra genitalia, et renes et pecten aqua in qua opium Thebaicum sit dissolutum; libidini maxime contraria camphora est, et coriandrum siccum frangit coitum, et erectionem virgae impedit; idem efficit synapium ebibitum.
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Nonnullos occidit ingens suppuratio, decem autem excoriatis supersunt plerumque octo: hi pecten habent nullum, ventremque pallida tegit cutis.
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah 2003
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It consists of a horse-shoe arch, the face of which is ornamented with gilded glass mosaic, forming the entrance to a semi-circular recess beautifully adorned with arabesques and inscriptions, the top of the dome being a large white marble slab hollowed out in the form of a pecten shell.
Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond Budgett Meakin 1886
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This is a large species of pecten, is closely allied to the P. princeps of the English crag.
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No body-pile or pecten ever grows upon the excoriated part which preserves through life a livid ashen hue.
Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855
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The pecten is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more presently.
Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855
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Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (mentha puligium), and probably alludes to the pecten.
Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855
ruzuzu commented on the word pecten
In conchology: "P. maximus is a common edible scallop of Great Britain, also called clam queen and frill. P. opercularis is another British species, also called quin. P. jacobæus, known as St. James shell, a Mediterranean species, used to be worn as a badge or emblem by pilgrims to the Holy Land. See pilgrim-shell." (From the Century Dictionary.)
April 8, 2011
madmouth commented on the word pecten
The most semantically diverse word one has never heard of
May 12, 2015