Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to, made of, or similar to a membrane.
  • adjective Medicine Characterized by the formation of a usually abnormal membrane or a layer similar to a membrane.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a membrane or membranes; membraniferous.
  • Consisting of membrane; having the texture or quality of a membrane; membranaceous.
  • Of or pertaining in any way to membrane; resembling membrane; membraniform.
  • In botany, having the character or appearance of membrane; thin, rather soft and pliable, and often more or less translucent, as sometimes leaves, the walls of seed-vessels, the indusia in ferns, etc. See phrases below.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to, consisting of, or resembling, membrane.
  • adjective (Bot.) Membranaceous.
  • adjective (Med.) true croup. See Croup.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having the qualities of, or pertaining to, a membrane.
  • adjective Accompanying the formation of a membrane.
  • adjective Thin, pliable, and often transparent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized by formation of a membrane (or something resembling a membrane)
  • adjective relating to or made of or similar to a membrane

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French membraneux, from Latin membrāneus.

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Examples

  • Every little cell is surrounded by a thin membranous wall, like a soap bubble.

    The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1991 - Presentation Speech 1997

  • The _ligule_ is a thin short membranous ridge with

    A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses K. Rangachari

  • The mesoderm then extends over the brain-vesicles, and thus the entire brain is enclosed by a mesodermal investment, which is termed the membranous cranium.

    II. Osteology. 1. Development of the Skeleton 1918

  • The cells of this layer proliferate rapidly, and extending medialward surround the notochord; at the same time they grow backward on the lateral aspects of the neural tube and eventually surround it, and thus the notochord and neural tube are enveloped by a continuous sheath of mesoderm, which is termed the membranous vertebral column.

    II. Osteology. 1. Development of the Skeleton 1918

  • The greater portion of it is thick and muscular and constitutes the muscular ventricular septum, but its upper and posterior part, which separates the aortic vestibule from the lower part of the right atrium and upper part of the right ventricle, is thin and fibrous, and is termed the membranous ventricular septum.

    V. Angiology. 4b. The Heart 1918

  • It was early admitted that certain cases of so-called membranous croup in children occurred after or while other members of the family or household had diphtheria; and for a time the opposing camps used such words as "sporadic" or scattered croup, which was supposed to come of itself, and "epidemic" or contagious croup, which was diphtheria.

    Preventable Diseases Woods Hutchinson 1896

  • The cloathing about the head should be warmer during sleep than in the day; because at that time people are more liable to take cold; that is, the membranous parts of it are more liable to become torpid.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • For instance, HCV NS4B remodels host membranes to form the so-called membranous web, the site for HCV genome replication.

    BioMed Central - Latest articles Erica Weiskircher 2009

  • "Treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy with the herb Astragalus membranaceus."

    Dr. Richard Palmquist: Using Herbs to Comfort Veterinary Cancer Patients 2010

  • Its stony exoskeleton opened up, revealing a pair of brightly colored membranous wings.

    The Search For WondLa Tony DiTerlizzi 2010

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