Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to leaves.
  • adjective Shaped like a leaf.
  • adjective Geology Exhibiting foliation.
  • intransitive verb To hammer or cut (metal) into thin leaf or foil.
  • intransitive verb To coat (glass, for example) with metal foil.
  • intransitive verb To furnish or adorn with metal foil.
  • intransitive verb To separate into thin layers or laminae.
  • intransitive verb To decorate with foliage or foils.
  • intransitive verb To number the leaves of (a manuscript, for example).
  • intransitive verb To produce foliage.
  • intransitive verb To split into thin leaflike layers or folia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To beat into a leaf, thin plate, or lamina; shape or dispose like a leaf; divide into foils or leaves.
  • To spread over with a thin coat of tin and quicksilver, etc.: as, to foliate a looking-glass.
  • Arranged in foliations: said of a pattern: divided into foliations: said of a bounding line or outline.
  • Beaten into the form of a leaf or thin plate; foliated.
  • In botany, leafy; furnished with leaves: as, a foliate stalk.
  • In zoology, expanded in a leaf-like form; foliaceous.
  • In architecture: To adorn by means of foliation. See foliation, 7.
  • To divide, as an arch, into smaller arches or foils. See foil, 7.

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

  • transitive verb To beat into a leaf, or thin plate.
  • transitive verb To spread over with a thin coat of tin and quicksilver.
  • adjective (Bot.) Furnished with leaves; leafy; as, a foliate stalk.
  • adjective (Geom.) Same as Folium.

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

  • adjective of or relating to leaves
  • adjective shaped like a leaf
  • adjective geology foliated
  • verb To form into leaves.
  • verb To beat into a leaf, or thin plate.
  • verb To spread over with a thin coat of tin and quicksilver.

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

  • verb hammer into thin flat foils
  • adjective (especially of metamorphic rock) having thin leaflike layers or strata
  • verb decorate with leaves
  • verb number the pages of a book or manuscript
  • adjective ornamented with foliage or foils
  • verb grow leaves
  • adjective (often used as a combining form) having or resembling a leaf or having a specified kind or number of leaves
  • verb coat or back with metal foil

Etymologies

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

[Latin foliātus, bearing foliage, from folium, leaf; see folium.]

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Examples

  • The action plates, which are engraved in foliate scroll, can have either a multicolored case-hardened finish or a flat-silver coin finish.

    Double-Gun Lust 2005

  • The capitals topping the pillars are of a simple foliate style.

    Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

  • Until the original Doric column was conceived and built, all temple pillars had been trees, and the fluted stone, with its foliate embellishment below the roof, audaciously mimicked them.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • Somehow the names added to the beauty of the plants like the foliate illuminations on the initial letters of medieval manuscripts, or honeysuckle spiralling up a living tree.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • Pigeons glide through foliate passageways, search for scraps at the feet of three old women on a bench, two in black, one in flowers and dots.

    Rittenhouse Square: excert from work-in-progress 2009

  • Until the original Doric column was conceived and built, all temple pillars had been trees, and the fluted stone, with its foliate embellishment below the roof, audaciously mimicked them.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • Pigeons glide through foliate passageways, search for scraps at the feet of three old women on a bench, two in black, one in flowers and dots.

    Rittenhouse Square: excert from work-in-progress 2009

  • Somehow the names added to the beauty of the plants like the foliate illuminations on the initial letters of medieval manuscripts, or honeysuckle spiralling up a living tree.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • One is from there free to hang the spatial surfaces on this framework as one want (shift functions) and how they foliate together (lapse functions).

    Does Space Expand? Sean 2008

  • The dusty pink dress, featuring layered tulle with sequins and metallic pink and silver foliate embroidery, was originally made for Suzanne Godart Cella, a couture collector and children's clothing designer.

    A Piece of Yves Saint Laurent 2008

Comments

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  • Leaf-shaped.

    November 14, 2007