The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sclerotic \Scle*rot"ic\, a. [Gr. sklhro`s hard: cf. F. scl['e]rotique.]
Hard; firm; indurated; -- applied especially in anatomy to the firm outer coat of the eyeball, which is often cartilaginous and sometimes bony.
(Anat.) Of or pertaining to the sclerotic coat of the eye; sclerotical.
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(Med.) Affected with sclerosis; sclerosed.
Sclerotic parenchyma (Bot.), sclerenchyma. By some writers a distinction is made, sclerotic parenchyma being applied to tissue composed of cells with the walls hardened but not thickened, and sclerenchyma to tissue composed of cells with the walls both hardened and thickened.
Sclerotic \Scle*rot"ic\, a. (Chem.) Pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained from ergot or the sclerotium of a fungus growing on rye.
Sclerotic \Scle*rot"ic\, n. [Cf. F. scl['e]rotique.] (Anat.) The sclerotic coat of the eye. See Illust. of Eye (d) .
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "pertaining to sclerosis," from medical Latin scleroticus, from Greek skleroun (see sclerosis). Figurative meaning "unchanging, rigid" is from 1961.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of or pertaining to the sclera 2 Having or relating to sclerosis. 3 Hard and insular. n. (context anatomy English) The sclerotic coat of the eye.
WordNet
adj. relating to or having sclerosis; hardened; "a sclerotic patient" [syn: sclerosed]
of or relating to the sclera of the eyeball; "sclerotic tissue"
Usage examples of "sclerotic".
Cars the age of his sclerotic Fiat that had started out on such boreens had never reached their destinations.
Cars the age of his sclerotic Fiat that had started out on such boreens had never reached their destinations.
I don't know whether such a belief today is best ascribed to ignorance of history, sclerotic dogmatism, unhealthy love of Malthus, or simple pigheadedness, but it is evidently a hardy perennial in human calculation.
Above, he thought, the myelin sheath of nerve fibers which had developed the sclerotic patches which were killing her.