spinous
English edit
Etymology edit
spine + -ous, or borrowed from Latin spinōsus.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
spinous (comparative more spinous, superlative most spinous)
- Having many spines.
- 1824, Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature - Volume 3, page 32:
- The cetaceous tribes have their bones entirely resembling those of quadrupeds, thick, white, and filled with marrow : those of the spinous kind, on the contrary, have small slender bones, with points resembling thorns, and generally solid throughout.
- 1968, Edmond V. Malnate, Natrix Dunni, a New Species of Watersnake from Malaysia, →ISBN:
- The organs are simple and spinous, the spines small distally on the organ, larger proximally.
- Spine-like; spiny.
- 1824, Thomas Horsfield, Zoological Researches in Java, and the Neighbouring Islands:
- It is however to be remarked, that these hairs are not of a spinous nature, as in the Mus fasciculatus and the Mus macrourus; they may properly be compared to bristles, having more consistence and rigidity than those of the Mus decumanus and giganteus; and in a natural arrangement, our animal stands between these species, and between those from which the character of the section is derived by M. Desmarest, and which, in a more rigorous sense, may be called spinous Rats.
- 1886, John Ruskin, Proserpina: Studies of Wayside Flowers:
- And yet — you are not to confuse the thistle with the cedar that is in Lebanon ; nor to forget — if the spinous nature of it become too cruel to provoke and offend — the parable of Joash to Amaziah, and its fulfilment : " There passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle."
- (obsolete) Of a person: difficult to deal with, prickly.
- 1836, The Southern literary messenger - Volume 2, page 353:
- He had the rough magnanimity of the old English vein, mellowed into tenderness and dashed with a flexible and spinous humor.
- 1838, Charles Lamb, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, The Works of Charles Lamb, page 102:
- They were coevals, and had nothing but that and their benchership in common. In politics Salt was a whig, and Coventry a stanch tory. Many a sarcastic growl did the latter cast out — for Coventry had a rough spinous humour — at the political confederates of his associate, which rebounded from the gentle bosom of the latter like cannon balls from wool. You could not ruffle Samual Salt.
- 1905, The Gentleman's Magazine - Volume 299, page 599:
- For rough spinous humour few could beat Socrates. In Plato we have this humour toned down into a refined irony.
- (rare) Of a subject: providing many difficulties, thorny.
- 2006, A. N. Linke, Trends in Chemical Physics Research, →ISBN, page 84:
- The spinous problem shifted from the how to find minima efficiently to what method should be employed to provide a better connection between the topography and the dynamics on the surface.
- 2006, Giuseppe Ballacci, “Rethinking Political Community From Neglected Places”, in European Consortium for Political Research, Joint Sessions, Nicosia Cyprus 15-30 April 2006:
- In this paper we have dealt with a very spinous issue such as the relation between the contingent and transcendent of human life and its meaning for politics.
- 2011, Yancey Banks, “Profile”, in Stage 32:
- My screenplays address a variety of upbeat as well as spinous issues, including family dysfunction, physical abuse, and the unknown gauntlet of the wild. Casting Director, and Film Production Consultant.
- 2014, Alejandro Aviles, Alessandro Bravetti, Salvatore Capozzziello, Orlando Luongo, “Precision cosmology with Padé rational approximations: theoretical predictions versus observational limits”, in Physical Review D, volume 90:
- The convergence problem probably represents the most spinous issue of cosmography.
- (anatomy) Having a sharp projection.
- 2012, Richard Drake, Richard Lee Drake, Wayne Vogl, Gray's Basic Anatomy, →ISBN, page 36:
- The spinous process of vertebra CII can be identified through deep palpation as the most superior bony protuberance in the midline inferior to the skull.
- the spinous processes of the lumbar vertebrae