Crossword clues for spicule
spicule
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spicule \Spic"ule\, n. [L. spiculum a little point, a dart.]
A minute, slender granule, or point.
(Bot.) Same as Spicula.
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(Zo["o]l.) Any small calcareous or siliceous body found in the tissues of various invertebrate animals, especially in sponges and in most Alcyonaria.
Note: Spicules vary exceedingly in size and shape, and some of those found in siliceous sponges are very complex in structure and elegant in form. They are of great use in classification.
Description of the Illustration:
a Acerate; b Tricurvate, or Bowshaped; c d Hamate; e Broomshaped; f Scepterellate; g Spinispirulate; h Inequi-anchorate; i Sexradiate; j A Trichite Sheaf; k Six-rayed Capitate; l Rosette of Esperia; m Equi-anchorate.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1785, from French spicule, from Latin spiculum, diminutive of spica (see spike (n.2)). Related: Spicular.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A sharp, needle-like piece 2 (context biology English) Any of many needle-like crystalline structures that provide skeletal support in marine invertebrates like sponges 3 (context astronomy English) A jet of matter ejected from the photosphere of the sun 4 A small spike of flowers
WordNet
n. small pointed structure serving as a skeletal element in various marine and freshwater invertebrates e.g. sponges and corals [syn: spiculum]
Wikipedia
Spicules are any of various small needle-like anatomical structures occurring in organisms
Spicule may also refer to:
- Spicule (sponge), small skeletal elements of sea sponges
- Spicule (nematode), reproductive structures found in male nematodes (roundworms)
- Spicule (solar physics), jets of solar material from the Sun
- Spicule (glass manufacture), glass flakes formed in the production of glass vials
In solar physics, a spicule is a dynamic jet of about 500 km diameter in the chromosphere of the Sun. It moves upwards at about 20 km/s from the photosphere. They were discovered in 1877 by Father Angelo Secchi of the Vatican Observatory in Rome.
Spicules are tiny glass flakes which are formed during the manufacture of glass vials. A glass tube is extruded at a constant rate and a jet of water applied to the hot glass is used to cut the blank tube to length. The bottom and lip of the vial are formed by swagging or upset forming while the glass is still hot.
Spicules are formed in a cloud when the glass explodes from the contact of the cold jet. These are held to the glass blank during forming, and if the vial is not reheated or cleaned after manufacture, these spicules can drift off into the mixture subsequently placed in the vial. This is a serious problem in the manufacture of soft contact lenses or pharmaceutical products.
Category:Glass engineering and science
In nematodes (roundworms), spicules, or copulatory spicules, are needle-like mating structures found only in males.
Males nematodes may have one or two spicules, which serve to open the vulva of females, and facilitate the transmission of sperm, although sperm is not transferred directly by or through the spicules. The gubernaculum is another organ of the nematode male copulatory system, which guides the spicules during copulation.
Usage examples of "spicule".
Small spicules of bone were removed, and a cloth was placed on the battered skull to receive the discharges for the inspection of the surgeon, who on his arrival saw at least two tablespoonfuls of cerebral substance on this cloth.
The ice over which the men had climbed was clear enough to see into for half a meter or more, and she was wondering whether there were coral spicules in it this high up.
They picked up a pair of spicules each and dragged themselves out of reach of the waves, made sure of the line connecting their suits, waved to the ship, and started away from the sea.
They chilled me so completely that I felt as if needle-fine spicules of ice were forming in my blood and were adhering to the walls of arteries and veins.
Reverend Starbuck answered as he shook spicules of broken glass from the folds of the flag.
The spicules of flame leaping from the rim, how high into the perpetual darkness did they fly, a billion miles, five billion?
There was no means other than rubbing on something softer than the glass, until the glass itself shed enough spicules to complete the task.
The gene chains were wrapped around long spires or spicules that emerged radially from a dense central knot.
The Decider prowled over to him and stood breathing through her spicules on his unprotected back.
The hull of the San Andreas was painted white - more correctly, it had been white but time and the sleet, hail, snow and ice spicules of Arctic storms had eroded the original to something between a dingy off-white and an equally dingy light grey.
For the most part, standing as we were on the bridge twenty feet above the level of the ice--the rest of the _Dolphin_ might never have existed, as far as the eye could tell--we were above this billowing ground swell of ice particles--but occasionally the wind gusted strongly, and the spicules lifted, drummed demoniacally against the already ice-sheathed starboard side of the sail, drove against the few exposed inches of our skin with all the painfully stinging impact of a sand blaster held at arm's length.
The tiny spicules were harder than mere sleet, needle-sharp, glittering in the headlamps, coming along like great clouds of diamond dust, on a course nearly horizontal to the ground, hissing abrasively across every surface they encountered.
The humidifier that was wrapped around his b-thorax covered his breathing spicules completely.
In the heat of midafternoon they needed no supplemental attire, though each wore a compact humidifier over their breathing spicules.
To think that you may have a man of noble mind, full of every lofty aspiration, and that a gross physical cause, such as the fall of a spicule of bone from the inner table of his skull on to the surface of the membrane which covers his brain, may have the ultimate effect of turning him into an obscene creature with every bestial attribute!