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  1. premorse love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Abruptly truncated, as though bitten or broken off: a premorse leaf.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Bitten off.
  2. In botany and entomology, having the apex irregularly truncate, as if bitten or broken: as, a premorse leaf or root; premorse elytra; etc.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. botany Terminated abruptly, or as if bitten off.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Terminated abruptly, or as it bitten off.

Etymologies

  1. Latin praemorsus, past participle of praemordere to bite off; prae before + mordere to bite. (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin praemorsus, past participle of praemordēre, to bite off in front : prae-, pre- + mordēre, to bite; see mer- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “As I looked over the water, I saw the isles rapidly wasting away, the sea nibbling voraciously at the continent, the springing arch of a hill suddenly interrupted, as at Point Alderton, -- what botanists might call premorse, -- showing, by its curve against the sky, how much space it must have occupied, where now was water only.”

    Cape Cod

  • “It's my own personal phenomenon: buyer's premorse.”

    Tea Leaves

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equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘premorse’

  1. premorse leaves

reverse dictionary (3)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. premorse
  1. praemorse
  1. bitten

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. humorous

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Lists

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Comments

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  • reesetee And related to morsel, I presume. :-) I like c_b's definition best too. Jan 12, 2008

  • bulletant its from the same latin word meaning to BITE. IE bite off. or curtail. Jan 12, 2008

  • chained_bear Freerice.com says this means "broken off," but when I saw it I could have sworn it meant "the state of anticipating being remorseful."

    I like my definition better. (though I did guess it right, at least!) Jan 12, 2008

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‘premorse’ has been looked up 840 times, added to 6 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.