Definitions

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

  • adjective Bearing spines.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Full of spines; spinous; spinigerous or spiniferous; armed with spines or thorns; of a spiny character: as, a spinose leaf; a spinose stem.

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

  • adjective Full of spines; armed with thorns; thorny.

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

  • adjective Having spines

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

  • adjective having spines

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin spīnōsus, from spīna, thorn.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

spine +‎ -ose, Latin spinōsus.

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Examples

  • Head, thorax, and legs black; the two former closely punctured and thinly covered with short cinereous pubescence; the metathorax with the punctures running into transverse striæ in the middle; the sides of the thorax and the legs with a fine silky silvery-white pile; the tibiæ and tarsi strongly spinose; wings fusco-hyaline; abdomen entirely red, smooth and shining.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • The metathorax transversely rugose; the pectus, and coxæ at their base within, black; wings brown, with a violet iridescence, their base rufo-hyaline; the intermediate and posterior tibiæ with a double row of spines, all the tarsi spinose.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Thorax and pectus tawny, the former globose, with a black dorsal spot; abdomen tawny at the base; anterior legs testaceous, hind femora spinose beneath; wings grey, darker at the tips; stigma and veins black; halteres testaceous, with piceous tips.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Thorax: fulvo-hyaline, with a dark fuscous border at the apex; the knees, tibiæ and tarsi reddish-yellow; the two latter spinose.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Thorax: the posterior margin of the prothorax rounded; the mesothorax with a longitudinal fuscous stripe on each side, widest anteriorly; the metathorax truncate; above, transversely striate; the tibiæ and tarsi spinose; wings dark fuscous, with a pale semitransparent macula at the base of the second discoidal cell and a dark fuscous macula beyond; the insect entirely covered with a fine orange-red downy pile.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • The metathorax transversely and rather finely rugose, the truncation more strongly striated; the scutellum shining; the wings subhyaline, the nervures ferruginous; the tibiæ with scattered spines, the tarsi spinose.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • The legs spinose; the posterior tibiæ with a double row of strong serrations.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Similarly, the spinose fin-rays were to have been termed "acanthonemes," the branching and multiarticulate "arthronemes," and those of the more elementary and "adipose fin" type "protonemes": and had he lived to complete the task, I question whether it would not have excelled his earlier achievements.

    The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Huxley, Leonard 1900

  • Similarly, the spinose fin-rays were to have been termed

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3 Leonard Huxley 1896

  • It is recognized by its oblique cones, conspicuously spinose, indefinitely persistent and very serotinous.

    The Genus Pinus George Russell Shaw 1892

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