sieve-plate

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bone or other hard, flat part full of little holes; a foraminulose plate or surface; specifically, the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone.
2. n. In botany, one of the panels or thin areas of a sieve-cell. See sieve-cell.
3. n. In paper manufacturing, a strainer for paper-pulp; a knotter; a sifting-machine.
4. n. In certain hexactinellid sponges like Euplectella, a transverse irregular network or reticulum covering the top of the skeleton, formed at a late stage in the growth of the sponge, and serving to protect the interior of the colony by the subdivision of the excurrent passage.