scarious
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]French scarieux. Compare scary.
Adjective
[edit]scarious (comparative more scarious, superlative most scarious)
- (botany) thin, dry, membranous, and not green[1]
- 1838, John Torrey, Asa Gray, A Flora of North America, page 422:
- A polymorphous plant, with larger (frequently three lines in diameter), more globose and racemose heads, and more scarious involucres than any form of A. vulgaris.
- thin, dry, membranous
- 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 169:
- Gray head goggling fowlwise on a scarious neck, turning.
- (zoology) scaly, scurfy
Synonyms
[edit]- (scaly): squamous; see also Thesaurus:scaly
- (scurfy): scruffy; see also Thesaurus:scabby
References
[edit]- ^ “scarious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.