Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An infusorial animalcule; one of the Infusoria.
  • Same as infusorial.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Infusoria.

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

  • noun any member of the infusoria

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

  • noun any member of the subclass Infusoria

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The difference between man and the infusorian is only that in the former the cells which originate from the double cell (the fertilized ovum) remain together and become differentiated one from another, while in the latter the cells are usually scattered but remain alike in appearance, etc.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 Various

  • At the end of each branch is situated an infusorian (vorticella), and the whole colony represents in itself the genealogical family tree.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 Various

  • Here then was the cup or calyx of a definite vorticellan form changing into (?) an absolutely different infusorian, viz.,

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888 Various

  • If we take an infusorian sufficiently large, such as the Stentor, and cut it into two halves each containing a part of the nucleus, each of the two halves will generate an independent

    Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926

  • And it may be asked what advantage, as far as we can see, would it be to an infusorian animalcule -- to an intestinal worm, or even to an earthworm -- to be highly organized.

    Introduction to the Science of Sociology Robert Ezra Park 1926

  • And it may be asked what advantage, as far as we can see, would it be to an infusorian animalcule—to an intestinal worm—or even to an earthworm, to be highly organised.

    IV. Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest. On the Degree to Which Organisation Tends to Advance 1909

  • But knowing the antipathy that the _amoeba_, like almost every other infusorian, has to the tentacles of the _acineta_, I concluded that the

    The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

  • If we take an infusorian sufficiently large, such as the Stentor, and cut it into two halves each containing a part of the nucleus, each of the two halves will generate an independent Stentor; but if we divide it incompletely, so that a protoplasmic communication is left between the two halves, we shall see them execute, each from its side, corresponding movements: so that in this case it is enough that a thread should be maintained or cut in order that life should affect the social or the individual form.

    Evolution créatrice. English Henri Bergson 1900

  • a new generation; how this simple asexual process continuing for several generations results in growing weakness and old age, steadily decreasing size, steadily decreasing vitality until there comes a time when one infusorian unites with another.

    The Social Emergency Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals Charles William Eliot 1880

  • A single infusorian becomes in a week the ancestor of millions, that is to say, of far more individuals than could proceed under the most favourable conditions from a pair of elephants in five centuries, while Huxley calculated that the progeny of a single parthenogenetic aphis, under favouring circumstances, would in a few months outweigh the whole population of China. [

    Essays in War-Time Further Studies in the Task of Social Hygiene Havelock Ellis 1899

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