The Collaborative International Dictionary
Geniculate \Ge*nic"u*late\, a. [L. geniculatus, fr. geniculum little knee, knot or joint, dim. of genu knee. See Knee.] Bent abruptly at an angle, like the knee when bent; as, a geniculate stem; a geniculate ganglion; a geniculate twin crystal.
Geniculate \Ge*nic"u*late\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Geniculated;
p. pr. & vb. n. Geniculating.]
To form joints or knots on. [R.]
--Cockeram.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"having knots or joints," 1660s, from Latin geniculatus, from geniculum "little knee, knot on the stalk of a plant," diminutive of genu "knee" (see knee (n.)).
Wiktionary
1 Bent abruptly, with the structure of a knee. 2 Having kneelike joints; able to bend at an abrupt angle. v
(context obsolete rare transitive English) To form joints or knots on.
WordNet
adj. bent at a sharp angle
Wikipedia
A geniculate habit, with reference to the red algae, is one in which the alga branches, tree-like, forming "fronds" that attach to the substrate with a holdfast. Non-calcified "genicula" serve as "knees" or hinges between the calcified intergenicula. The geniculate or non-geniculate form of algae was used to classify them; however either form has been convergently derived many times. The genuculae sometimes contain lignin.
Genucila have probably evolved at least three times, evidenced by the three different modes of their formation.
Usage examples of "geniculate".
If the brain is to interpret images arriving at the retina of the eye, these pathways, with their compressions and expansions, have to be organized in an orderly manner - and indeed it can be shown that there is a precise topographic mapping of the retina onto the neurons of the lateral geniculate and a further mapping of these cells onto those of the visual cortex.
The revolution, eternally vigilant, multitasked on his lateral geniculate body, rousting slumbering synapses to recognize suspicious patterns of behavior.
Images are incarnated as they are processed by the brain: fed back, via numerous reentrant loops, through the lateral geniculate nucleus, to the various subdivisions of the visual cortex.
That is, there is a type of map of the retina in the lateral geniculate, and a further map, albeit transformed at least as much as Mercator's projection transforms the globe of the world into a two-dimensional plan on a classroom wall, in the visual cortex.
The optic nerves terminate in a region deep in the brain called the lateral geniculate.