Definitions

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

  • noun The condition of being villous.
  • noun A villous formation, surface, or coating.
  • noun A villus.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A number of villi together; a roughness or shagginess resulting from villiform processes; a nap or pile, as of an organic membrane; fine or short hispidity; pilosity.
  • noun In botany, the state of being villous, or covered with long, soft hairs: such hairs collectively.

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

  • noun State of being villous.
  • noun (Bot.) A coating of long, slender hairs.
  • noun (Anat.) A villus.

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

  • noun the state of being villous

Etymologies

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Examples

  • When talking about the rights denied our fellow sentient animals, Jeremy Bentham asked, “It may come one day to be recognized that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons… insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being.

    Philocrites: This week at uuworld.org: Heroes' dilemma. 2006

  • It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    The Moral Status of Animals Gruen, Lori 2003

  • It may come one day to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog 2008

  • It may come one day to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog 2008

  • It may come one day to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog 2008

  • It may come one day to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog 2008

  • "It may one day come to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2009

Comments

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  • Jeremy Bentham: 'The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate.'

    December 3, 2008