squamous

What it means

1. Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.

   We spread the papers on the least squamous section of the floor and lay down; the smell was not so bad at ground level.

   1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 133

   3 more examples

   In the squamous heads of Scabius, Knapweed, and the elegant Jacea Pinea, and in the Scaly composure of the Oak-Rose, which some years most aboundeth.

   1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 180

   I might call it gigantic - tentacled - proboscidian - octopus-eyed - semi-amorphous - plastic - partly squamous and partly rugose - ugh!

   1933, H. P. Lovecraft, Hazel Heald, Out of the Aeons

   (And we'll never find out whether the last thought to pass through the mind of the captain of the Thresher was, "It's squamous and rugose," or simply, "It's squamous!")

   2001, Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archive, trade paperback 2006 edition, page 66

   Synonyms: squamose, squamulose, scaled, scaly, scarious, squamate, squamated, squamiferous · Antonyms: esquamulose, scaleless

2. anatomyOf or pertaining to the squamosal bone; squamosal
3. Of or pertaining to an epithelium with cells that are wider than their height (flat and scale-like).

In a sentence

In the squamous heads of Scabius, Knapweed, and the elegant Jacea Pinea, and in the Scaly composure of the Oak-Rose, which some years most aboundeth.

1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 180

Where it comes from

1. Latinsquāmōsus
2. Middle Englishsquamous
3. Englishsquamous

From Middle English squamous, from Latin squāmōsus, from squāma (“scale (of a fish or reptile)”).