Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Shaped like a spatula.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Shaped like a spatula; in zoology and anatomy, spoon-shaped, or rounded more or less like the outlines of a spoon; spatuliform; in botany, shaped like a spatula; resembling a spatula in shape, being oblong or rounded with a long narrow attenuate base: as, a spatulate leaf, petal, or other flattened organ. Also spathulate. See cuts under Eurynorhynchus, paddle-fish, Parotia, Prioniturus, Spathura, and shoveler.

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

  • adjective (Nat. Hist.) Shaped like spatula, or like a battledoor, being roundish, with a long, narrow, linear base.

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

  • adjective Shaped like a spatula; having a rounded, flattened extremity.
  • adjective botany, of leaf Having a broad, flat end and tapering into a narrower base.
  • verb To treat or mix with a spatula.

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

  • adjective (of a leaf shape) having a broad rounded apex and a narrow base

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Curved on top, perfectly spatulate nails (a sign of intuitive insight), a healthy shell pink, crowning long, slender pianist fingers.

    Anhedonia (excerpt) Laura Preble 2010

  •  He noticed for the millionth time that her fingertips were slightly spatulate, as if her body needed to touch more, feel more than other people.

    The Secret Animal 2010

  • Her spatulate fingers tapped the floor plans of 5 Curzon Close.

    Naked Cruelty Colleen McCullough 2010

  • If we no longer understand a word they are saying, then we may want to turn to those still willing to call a ‘spade’ a spade rather than a ‘fabricated long-handled domestic or industrial spatulate tool designed to lift and move material from one place to another’.

    Archive 2008-03-09 2008

  • Broad spatulate leaves of olive and black backed the green bloom.

    Shopgirls Frederick Barthelme 2010

  • If we no longer understand a word they are saying, then we may want to turn to those still willing to call a ‘spade’ a spade rather than a ‘fabricated long-handled domestic or industrial spatulate tool designed to lift and move material from one place to another’.

    The Politician's Exclusionary Jargon 2008

  • Her hands are spatulate and flat-nailed, pale, like the rest of her.

    Angels Carry the Sun excerpt: Chapter One, In the Woods 2010

  • Viz inspected each wing in turn, men his enormous, formidably clawed feet, lastly the broad, spatulate tail.

    The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010

  • His arms were long, his hands huge, with spatulate, magnetic fingers and the soft, unerring touch of a poolshark.

    LIGHT FINGERS 2009

  • He tells us that a character dug in the dirt with “the tines of his stubby and spatulate fingers.”

    2007 January 17 « One-Minute Book Reviews 2007

Comments

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  • sadly enough, I had a girlfriend once who was spatulated by her mother

    December 8, 2006

  • Holmes used this word once when he was talking to his female client who was a typist.

    June 2, 2012