Definitions

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

  • adjective Capable of being thrust outward, as the proboscis of many insects.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being protruded; protrusile.

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

  • adjective Capable of being protruded

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

  • adjective capable of being thrust forward, as the tongue

Etymologies

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

[Latin prōtrūsus, past participle of prōtrūdere, to protrude; see protrude + –ile.]

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Examples

  • She eats bugs & catches them by sight, smell or by tasting them with her protrusible, deeply forked tongue.

    Autotomous Penes & Endless War 2009

  • This is typically a protrusible penis-like structure that may be armed with hooks.

    Platyhelminthes 2007

  • Body more or less flask-shape, two or three times as long as broad, with conical apex, which is slightly elastic and protrusible; surface obliquely striate, with well-defined lines, 14 to 16 in number; cilia uniform on the body, with a crown of longer ones at the base of the conical proboscis.

    Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 1906

  • The protrusible tongue, ending in a sticky club, can be shot out for about seven inches in the common chameleon.

    The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told J. Arthur Thomson 1897

  • The bulk of the animal is marked VM; the eye is shown at E; a hood is marked H; round the mouth there are numerous lobes (L) bearing protrusible tentacles, some of which are shown.

    The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told J. Arthur Thomson 1897

  • Chim soon outdid him, and one of the funniest things imaginable was to see him blown at and blowing in return; his protrusible lips converted themselves into a trumpet-shaped instrument, which reminded one immediately of some of the devils of Albert Dürer, or those incredible forms which the old painters used to delight in piling together in their temptations of Saint Anthony.

    Heads and Tales : or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More or Less Distinguished Men. Adam White 1848

  • And new discoveries, like rotational feeding, maternal dermatophagy, protrusible eyes and hydrostatic locomotion, have brought caecilians to the widespread attention of biologists.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • In case you don't know, caecilians have sensory tentacles, sometimes have protrusible eyes, sometimes lack eyes entirely, often exhibit sophisticated parental care [maternal skin-feeding is going on in the middle image above], are incredibly long-bodied yet often lack tails, sometimes possess large, anatomically complex, eversible male sexual organs, and so on and so forth.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • In case you don't know, caecilians have sensory tentacles, sometimes have protrusible eyes, sometimes lack eyes entirely, often exhibit sophisticated parental care [maternal skin-feeding is going on in the middle image above], are incredibly long-bodied yet often lack tails, sometimes possess large, anatomically complex, eversible male sexual organs, and so on and so forth.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • And new discoveries, like rotational feeding, maternal dermatophagy, protrusible eyes and hydrostatic locomotion, have brought caecilians to the widespread attention of biologists.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

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