Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A natural outer covering or coat, such as the skin of an animal or the membrane enclosing an organ.
- n. Botany The envelope of an ovule.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In general, a covering; that which covers or clothes.
- n. Specifically That which naturally covers or invests any animal or vegetable body, as a skin, shell, case, crust, or rind; especially, a continuous investment or covering, as the cutaneous envelop or skin of an animal body, with or without its special appendages. The integument may be thin, soft, and membranous, as a flexible skin, or variously thickened, hardened, crustaceous, chitinous, etc., as the shells of crustaceans and mollusks or the hard cases of insects; and it often bears particular outgrowths or appendages, as hairs, feathers, or scales.
Wiktionary
- n. biology An outer protective covering such as the feathers or skin of an animal, a rind or shell.
- n. botany The outer layer of an ovule, which develops into the seed coat.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. That which naturally invests or covers another thing, as the testa or the tegmen of a seed; specifically (Anat.), a covering which invests the body, as the skin, or a membrane that invests a particular part.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an outer protective covering such as the skin of an animal or a cuticle or seed coat or rind or shell
Etymologies
- From Latin integumentum ("a covering"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin integumentum, from integere, to cover : in-, on; see in-2 + tegere, to cover; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Considered in these points of view, Mosaism has the appearance, in its exterior garb, of a special law, adapted to peculiar circumstances, and circumscribed to few persons, but in reality, and apart from that kind of integument, it contains the universal doctrines, destined to become the inheritance of all mankind.”
“Jambers was not quite sure what "integument" was, but she thanked God she had never had it in her family.”
“Within the integument of one system of exploitation, in other words, was contained a systemic conflict that, if not resolved, would lead to stagnation and decline but, if properly confronted, might lead to a higher synthesis of abundance and equality.”
“The bison know a lot about Longfellow and wisteria and patrimony, the piscine nuance of the clouds, God's topological integument.”
“Your tissues, on the other hand, eject water rapidly through the pores, at least as deep as a few millimeters, and the outer skin collapses down to a tough, leathery integument.”
“As the green flames lifted I could see the oily gleam of his integument and the brightness of his eyes.”
“But then I perceived the resemblance of its grey-brown, shiny, leathery integument to that of the other sprawling bodies beyond, and the true nature of this dexterous workman dawned upon me.”
“Accuracy can be accomplished in the skeleton and musculature, but after that, unless amazing circumstances exist like integument or soft tissue preservation, it's all aesthetic, but even then, I'm very conservative in my approach to most dinosaurs.”
“Most freshwater crustaceans have thoracic and abdominal gills with which they exchange gases while the rest simply diffuse gases across their body integument.”
“On one occasion the authors offered a live slug to 3 juvenile A. fulica with the following results:All three A. fulica climbed on top of the slug and proceeded to consume the integument of the slug.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘integument’.
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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phrontistery - i
from phrontistery.info
izzat, izzard, ixiodic, izard, ivresse, ixora, ivorist, ivoride, ivorine, iulus, iulan, ithomiid and 510 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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-ments aplenty
The stranger, the better.
battlement, devilment, ailment, dismemberment, embezzlement, blandishment, entanglement, engorgement, embankment, elopement, disgruntlement, hutment and 77 more...
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Furriery
Anything to do with the fur trade.
furriery, badger, trap, trapper, beaver, polecat, fitch, fitchew, mink, chinchilla, rabbit, fur and 47 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, I
irenic, inimical, ignotism, infrangible, internecine, illumine, ingot, imposter, iconoclast, indefeasible, indefatigable, impingement and 184 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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The Whiteness of the Whale
Words in Melville's "Moby Dick"
grapnels, spile, pea coffee, farrago, grego, bosky, bombazine, brevet, cenotaph, cupidity, kelson, obliquity and 164 more...
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Nabokov vocabulary
verisimilitude, geminate, pedantic, intervestibular, equilibrist, nictitating, anastomosis, quiddity, torus, cacahuete, undulation, pensum and 135 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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the catch-all
inveigle, frontier, invective, quizzical, merit, proficiency, eleemosynary, ham-handed, circumspect, epergne, cobble, industriousness and 201 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for integument.
Casey "The empty integuments of grand buildings began to fill. Rural poor from Grain Spiral and the Mendican Foothills began to creep into the deserted borough." From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Dec 4, 2011
reesetee Usage 1: "I always use SPF lotion when sunning at the beach. It's important to avoid integumentburn."
Usage 2: "Horror movies? They make my integument crawl." Aug 13, 2009