Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In biology, of or pertaining to the locomotion of cells or of organisms in relation to contact with foreign solid bodies; exhibiting thigmotaxis.

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

  • adjective (Physiol.) Of or pertaining to thigmotaxis.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There is that of possibility in being positively thigmotactic which makes one dread the necessity of exposing and limiting its meaning, of digging down to its mathematically accurate roots.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

  • Not to know the precise meaning of being positively thigmotactic is a stimulant to the imagination, which opens the way to an entire essay on the disadvantages of education -- a thought once strongly aroused by the glorious red-and-gold hieroglyphic signs of the Peking merchants -- signs which have always thrilled me more than the utmost efforts of our modern psychological advertisers.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

  • In the first place Guinevere had ceased being positively thigmotactic, and, writing as a technical herpetologist, I need add no more.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

  • Having crossed unconsciously by such a slender etymological bridge from my jungle tadpole to China, it occurs to me that the Chinese are the most positively thigmotactic people in the world.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

  • hey sheen, i suggest you find the newest negativland album "thigmotactic". it starts with a quote by richard nixon about "haters".

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

Comments

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  • Some years ago, in the course of doing research for an article I was writing, I learned that organisms that actively seek out physical contact are described by scientists as thigmotactic. Our cat is exceedingly thigmotactic.
    Kathryn Schulz, Lost & Found: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 2022], p. 221

    November 19, 2022