Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Needlelike, as the leaves of pine; acerate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany: Chaffy; resembling chaff.
  • Straight, slender, rigid, and sharp-pointed, as the leaves of the pine; needle-shaped.

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

  • adjective Having the nature of chaff; chaffy.
  • adjective Needle-shaped, having a sharp, rigid point, as the leaf of the pine.

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

  • adjective botany Having the nature of chaff; chaffy.
  • adjective botany needle-shaped, having a sharp, rigid point, as the leaf of the pine.

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

  • adjective narrow and long and pointed; as pine leaves

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin acerōsus, incorrect use of Latin acerōsus, full of chaff (as if from acus, needle, or ācer, sharp), from acus, acer-, chaff; see ak- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin acerosus chaffy, from acus, (genitive aceris), chaff

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

As if from Latin acus needle: compare French acéreux

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Examples

  • PLEBEIA; an acerose LEUCOPOGON; a species of violet, with small, densely-spiked flowers (was covered with wild bees in search of its honey).

    Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia 2003

  • A species of fir which one of my men informs me is precisely the same with that called the balsam fir of Canada. 1 it grows here to considerable size, being from 2 1/2 to 4 feet in diameter and rises to the hight of eighty or an hundred feet. it 's stem is simple branching, ascending and proliferous. it's leaves are sessile, acerose, one 1/8 of an inch in length and

    Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 1904

  • MYOPORUM DULCE; VERONICA PLEBEIA; an acerose LEUCOPOGON; a species of violet, with small, densely-spiked flowers (was covered with wild bees in search of its honey).

    Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia Thomas Mitchell 1823

  • This tree Seldom rises to a greater hight than 35 or 40 feet and is from 2 to 4 feet in Diamieter; the Bark the Same with that of No. 1. only reather more rugid. the leaf is acerose, 2/10 of an inch in width and

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • The leaves are petiolate, the footstalk Small Short and oppressed; acerose reather more than 1/2

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • Page view page image: acerose reather more than half a line in width and very unequal in length, the greatest length being little more than half an inch, while others intermixed on every part of the bough are not more than a 1/4 in length. flat with a small longitudinal channel in the upper disk which is of a deep green and glossey, while the u [n] der disk is of a whiteish green only; two ranked, obtusely pointed, soft and flexable. this tree affords but little rosin. the cone is remarkably small not larger than the end of a man's thumb soft, flexable and of an ovate form, produced at the ends of the small twigs.

    Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 1904

  • No. 5 is a species of fir which arives to the Size of No. 2, and No. 4. the Stem Simple branching, diffuse and proliferous. the bark thin dark brown, much divided with Small longitudinal interstices scaleing off in thin rolling flakes. it affords but little rosin and the wood is redish white 2/3ds of the diamieter in the Center the ballance white Somewhat porus and tough. the twigs are much longer and more slender than in either of the other speceies. the leaves are acerose 1/20 of an inch in width, and an inch in length, sessile, inserted on all Sides of the bough, Streight, their extremities pointing obliquely towards the extremities of the bough and more thickly placed than in either of the other Species; gibbous and flexable but more stiff than any except No. 1 and more blontly pointed than either of the other Species; the upper disk has a Small longitudinal Channel and is of a deep green tho not so

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • Same with that called the balsam fir of Canada. it grows here to considerable Size, being from 21/2 to 4 feet in diameeter and rises to the hight of 100 or 120 feet. it's Stem is Simple branching assending and proliferous -. it's leaves are cessile, acerose, 1/8 of an inch in length and 1/16 of an inch in width, thickly scattered on all Sides of the twigs as far as the groth of four proceeding years, and respects the three undersides only, the upper Side being neglected and the under

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • The leaves are petiolate, the footstalk small short and oppressed; acerose reather more than half a line in width and very unequal in length, the greatest length being little more than half an inch, while others intermixed on every part of the bough are not more than a 1/4 in length. flat with a small longitudinal channel in the upper disk which is of a deep green and glossey, while the uder disk is of a whiteish green only; two ranked, obtusely pointed, soft and flexable. this tree affords but little rosin. the cone is remarkably small not larger than the end of a man's thumb soft, flexable and of an ovate form, produced at the ends of the small twigs.

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 Meriwether Lewis 1791

  • [The one with singularly thick, firm, and rigid leaves, a foot long, linear attenuated at each extremity, pubescenti-sericeous, striated: the other with white acerose leaves pinnated in two pairs.

    Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia 2003

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