What is "vestigial"

Usage examples of "vestigial".

On the whole, it seems just to assign the Siouan mythology to the upper strata of zootheism, just verging on physitheism, with vestigial traces of hecastotheism.

I think this lacking is the most unmodern facet of my personalitythe career equivalent of having six fingers, or a vestigial tail.

Lbasa apso or a shib tzu-some animal that had at least the vestigial charm of a cat.

A less zealous, optimistic and dogged individual than he would not have even supposed that, so years after the Hearts had emigrated east from Vegas, that city of all American cities phantasmagoric and insubstantial as a delirium hallucination, there could be any trace, any vestigial memory of them.

It will also take care of any vestigial headache that might creep up on you, if any afterreaction sets in.

Zhemzhis have pebbly grayish beige skin, snoutlike faces, and vestigial tails.

Though his stomach lurched as they took the elevator to the fifth level, he focused his mind tightly on the job at hand, and managed to put down the slight wave of dizziness that broke over him when he neared the precipitous edge of the subflooring, unguarded by even the most vestigial of safety railings.

This pheromone is detected by the human male by means of the vomeronasal organ, a vestigial apparatus that runs from the nose to the brain.

Jameson for the first time noticed the vestigial limbs, six flipperlike stumps, that sprawled out uselessly from their bloated bulks.

Each of the gengineered pigs had a barrel-shaped body, stubby, nearly vestigial limbs, and a blunt snout that pointed toward the ceiling.

This is a contraction of the phrase, "We could end up in prison married to the guy with the most cigarettes," which Avi coined during their earlier Andrew-related legal troubles and had so many occasions to repeat that it was eventually reduced to this vestigial three words.

It had a lot of rabbit genes to enable it to survive in its sparse environmentits "hooves" still retained vestigial claws from the toes they were derived from, and its "horns" were sidetracked bicuspids, channeled up through the skulland its breathing apparatus owed a lot to porpoises.

It chittered its dull brown vestigial wing carapaces, and crouched to drag its white, soft, squishy-looking abdomen to the safety of one corner.

Except for the possession of three sets of limbs-two ambulators, two medial heavy manipulators, and two more at neck level for eating and to perform more delicate work, rather than the Tarlan's three sets of four—and a cranium covered by thick, blue fur that continued in a narrow strip along the spine to the vestigial tail, the general physical characteristics were remarkably similar.

Then the ship lifted into black dust clouds so dense that the end of the vestigial control surfaces, just a few feet beyond the port, became invisible to her.