sembling

English

Etymology

Compare assembling.

Noun

sembling (uncountable)

1. (zoology) The practice of attracting the males of Lepidoptera or other insects by exposing the female confined in a cage (as by collectors wishing to procure specimens).
   • 1899, James William Tutt, A Natural History of the British Lepidoptera:

     time of sembling birds' droppings

   • 1831, James Rennie, Insect Architecture:

     Upon this is founded the practice of sembling, as it is called by the London collectors, among whom, as we learn from Barbut and Harris, it has been long in use, for entrapping the males of the fox-moth […]

Verb

sembling

1. present participle and gerund of semble

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sembling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)