Scales definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (217)

American Heritage Dictionary (40)

noun One of the many small platelike dermal or epidermal structures that characteristically form the external covering of fishes, reptiles, and certain mammals.
noun A similar part, such as one of the minute structures overlapping to form the covering on the wings of butterflies and moths.
noun Pathology A dry thin flake of epidermis shed from the skin.

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Century Dictionary (151)

A husk, shell, pod, or other thin covering of a seed or fruit, as of the bean.
Ln botany, a small rudimentary or thin scarious body, usually a metamorphosed leaf, scale-like in form and often in arrangement, constituting the covering of the leaf-buds of deciduous trees in cold climates, the involucre of the Compositæ, the bracts of the catkin, the imbricated and thickened leaves which constitute the bulb, and the like. Also applied in the Coniferæ to the leaves or bracts of the cone, and to the chaff on the stems of ferns. See also cuts under imbricate and rosin-plant.
In zoology, an epidermal or exoskeletal structure that is thin, flat, hard or dry, and of some definite extent; a piece of cuticle that is squamous, scaly, or horny, and does not constitute a hair, a feather, or a horn, hoof, nail, or claw; a squama; a scute; a scutellum. All these structures, however, belong to one class, and there is no absolute distinction. Scales are often of large size and great comparative thickness or solidity, and may be reinforced by bone, in which case they are commonly called shields or plates. Specifically— In ichthyology, one of the particular modifications of epidermis which collectively form the usual covering, more or less complete, of fishes; a fish-scale. They are of many forms and sizes, but have been sometimes considered under the four heads of cycloid, ctenoid, ganoid, and placoid, and fishes have been classified accordingly, as by Agassiz. (See cycloid, etc.) They are developed on the inner side of the general epidermis, but vary greatly in form and other characteristics. In most living fishes they are expanded horny lamellæ, and imbricated, the posterior edges of one transverse row overlapping adjacent parts of the sncceeding row. Growth takes place from a central, subcentral, or posterior nucleus by increase at the periphery. Generally the anterior part, or base of insertion, is provided with striæ or grooves diverging backward. (1) In numerous fishes growth takes place in layers and at the posterior edges as much as at the anterior, and there are no teeth or denticles at the posterior margin: such are called cycloid scales. (2) When the posterior margin is beset with denticles, a ctenoid scale is the result. When vestiges of such teeth or denticles are retained on the surface between the nucleus and the posterior margin, the surface is to that extent muricated. In other forms the growth is almost entirely sideways and forward, and the nucleus is consequently near the posterior edge. (3) Still other fishes have a hard enameled surface to the scale, which is generally of a rhomboidal form, and such a scale is called ganoid; but few modern fishes are thus armed, though scales of this kind were developed by numerous extinct forms. (4) When the scales are very small, or represented by ossified papillæ of the cutis, they are called placoid; such are found in most of the sharks. Between these various types there are gradations, and there are also numerous modifications in other directions. The presence or absence of scales becomes also of slight systematic importance in some groups, and the same family may contain species with a scaleless body and others with scales of the ctenoid and cycloid types. The scales of various fishes, as the sheepshead, mullet, and drum, are used in the manufacture of ornamental work, as mock jewelry, flower-sprays, etc. Pearl-white or essence d'Orient, used in making artificial pearls, is prepared from the scales of Alburnus lucidus and other cyprinoid fishes. In herpetology, one of the cuticular structures which form the usual covering of reptiles proper, as distinguished from amphibians, as a snake or lizard. These scales are commonly small, and are distinguished from the special shields or plates which cover the head, and the large specialized gastrosteges or urosteges of the under parts, as of a serpent. They are usually arranged in definite rows or series, and are also called scutes or scutella. In the Chelonia or turtles one of the thin plates of tortoise-shell which cover the carapace is a scale. See tortoise-shell. In ornithology: (1) A reduced feather, lacking locked barbs, and with flattened stem: as, the scales of a penguin. (2) A feather with metallic luster or iridescence, as those on the throat of a humming-bird. (3) A nasal opercle; a naricorn: as, the nasal scale. (4) One of the large regular divisions of the tarsal envelop; a scutellum: the smaller or irregular pieces being usually called plates. In mammalogy, one of the cuticular plates which may replace hairs on much of the body: as, the scales of a pangolin.

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And then there is self-similarity across the scales -- in other words, from one skin of the onion to another one. — Murray Gell-Mann on beauty and truth in physics
Though the crime that finally tipped the scales was their disinclination to attend Pentecostal services. — The Shipping News
What finally tipped the scales was the thought of having to tell his wife that he was flat broke. — Maigret and the Man on the Bench—69—Georges Simenon
On the negative side of the scales is the fact that a worsening recession could cause more large write-offs in banks 'consumer and business lending and commercial real estate portfolios. — AOL News
What brand of mustache wax do you use: During the rainy season in tropical Asia, an endangered animal called the Pangolin secretes a musky substance from beneath it's scales which is said to be as strong as superglue, yet as moldable as clay. — Trashionista.net

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