Definitions

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

  • noun A fold or ridge, as of skin, membrane, or shell.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In pathology, a matted, filthy condition of the hair, from disease. Also called plica polonica, helosis, and trichosis.
  • noun In botany, a diseased state in plants in which the buds, instead of developing true branches, become short twigs, and these in their turn produce others of the same sort, the whole forming an entangled mass.
  • noun In zoology and anatomy, a fold or folding of a part.
  • noun In entomology, a prominent ridge or carina, often turned over or inclined to one side, so that it appears like a fold; specifically, a longitudinal ridge on the internal surface of each elytron, near the outer edge; an elytral ridge, found in certain Coleoptera.
  • noun In herpetology: [capitalized] A genus of American iguanoid lizards: named from the folds of skin on the sides.
  • noun A lizard of this genus: as, the dotted plica, P. punctata.
  • noun In mensural music: A kind of grace-note.
  • noun A kind of ligature
  • noun The stem or tail of a note.
  • noun The bend or flexure of the wing at the carpal joint. [Rare.]

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

  • noun (Med.) A disease of the hair (Plica polonica), in which it becomes twisted and matted together. The disease is of Polish origin, and is hence called also Polish plait.
  • noun (Bot.) A diseased state in plants in which there is an excessive development of small entangled twigs, instead of ordinary branches.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The bend of the wing of a bird.

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

  • noun A fold or crease, especially of skin or other tissue.
  • noun Polish plait, a disease of the hair in which it becomes twisted and matted together.
  • noun botany A diseased state in plants in which there is an excessive development of small entangled twigs, instead of ordinary branches.
  • noun zoology The bend of the wing of a bird.

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

  • noun a folded part (as in skin or muscle)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin, fold, from Latin plicāre, to fold; see plek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin, from Latin plicare ("to fold")

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