Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A usually dense, cylindrical, often drooping cluster of unisexual apetalous flowers found in willows, birches, and oaks. Also called ament1.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In botany, a scaly spike of unisexual flowers, usually deciduous after flowering or fruiting, as in the willow and birch; an ament. Also called cattail.
Wiktionary
- n. A type of inflorescence, consisting of a slender axis with many unisexual apetalous flowers along its sides, as in the willow and poplar.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An ament; a species of inflorescence, consisting of a slender axis with many unisexual apetalous flowers along its sides, as in the willow and poplar, and (as to the staminate flowers) in the chestnut, oak, hickory, etc. -- so called from its resemblance to a cat's tail. See
Illust. of ament.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cylindrical spikelike inflorescence
Etymologies
- From obsolete Dutch katteken, kitten, diminutive of katte, cat (from its resemblance to a kitten's tail), from Germanic *kattuz.
Examples
“Catten or catkin is the term I like for the felines at that age.”
“The male flower, called a catkin, looks like a full-blown erection.”
“A. Pussy willows 'buds form the previous fall and open during February and early March to reveal their delightful petal-less, fuzzy silver "catkin" flowers.”
“Try as I might I cannot relocate it within its microworld and the more I handle its catkin inner sanctum the more it crumbles under my weight.”
“Through the catkin's core is a long green stem from which radiate tiny branchlets.”
“Although this year's catkin display looked disappointingly dull and thin compared with previous years, the golden danglers full of pollen were only the male flowers.”
“Click here for a picture of the catkin in "full bloom.”
“After pollination, the distended catkin wilts and sags, becoming increasingly brown and shriveled, until it falls to the forest floor with a dank damp thud.”
“On another nearby catkin, cell-phone-sized white slugs are also munching on blossoms.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘catkin’.
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A Galimafrée of Plant Anatomy & Morphology Terms
A hodgepodge, jumble, jambalaya, *gallimaufry, circus and tent revival of plant anatomy and morphology words and phrases - its a big tent, and no tickets are required.
*array, collecti...naked bud, leaf blade, brochidodromous, serrate, cork cambium, rhizomatous, flower stalk, deciduous sepal, petal, whorl, nectar gland, stamen and 1093 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 46 more...
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