arborise
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Latin arbor (“tree”) + -ise.
Verb
editarborise (third-person singular simple present arborises, present participle arborising, simple past and past participle arborised)
- (intransitive) To develop a tree-like appearance.
- The nerve fibre arborises into multiple branches.
- 1915, T. B. Johnston, chapter 1, in Medical Applied Anatomy,[1], London: A. and C. Black, page 4:
- Either in the spinal medulla or in the brain stem the axons end by arborising round nerve-cells and the impulses which they convey are transferred to these upper neurones.
- 1964, Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation[2], New York: Macmillan, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 433:
- A hierarchy […] is not like a row of organ pipes; it is like a tree, arborizing downward.
- (transitive) To cause (something) to develop a tree-like appearance.
- 2008, Jen Weaverling, editor, Creative Flower Gardening[3], Minnetonka, MN: National Home Gardening Club, page 128:
- Tall, wide shrubs take up a huge amount of space in a small garden, so remove the lower limbs to provide more space underneath. […] When you “arborize” the shrub by limbing it up, you’ll discover an elegant, multi-trunked structure […]
- 2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory[4], New York: Norton:
- (transitive) To penetrate or fill (an area) with a tree-like structure.
- 1967, Christine Brooke-Rose, “The Foot”, in Susan Williams, Richard Glyn Jones, editors, The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women[5], London: Penguin, published 1996, page 187:
- The imitation neurones I am composed of agitate their dendrites like mad ganglia that arborize the system as the cell bodies dance along the axis cylinder within the fibres of the foot that isn’t there […]
- 1991, Donald G. McQuarrie, “Techniques of Resection and Reconstruction for Tongue and Mouth Cancer”, in John S. Najarian, John P. Delaney, editors, Progress in Cancer Surgery[6], St. Louis: Mosby, page 254:
- The vessels penetrate the clavipectoral fascia […] . They then arborize the underside of the pectoralis major.