fusome

comparative more fusome · superlative most fusome

1. ScotlandalternativeAlternative form of fulsome; offensive; loathsome.

   Waes me! waes me! siccan a fusome sight as I am.

   1825, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Lochandhu: A Tale of the Eighteenth Century, page 63

   3 more examples

   While glakit fools, owr rife o' cash, Pamper their weyms wi' fusome trash, I think a chiel may gayly pass;

   1799, Robert Fergusson, Poems on various subjects, page 113

   Out, fie, the fusome carlie! The ill contriving carlie!

   1851, Edwin Paxton Hood, Genius & Industry: The Achievements of Mind Among the Cottages, page 111

   And ye be gaun to court a wife, ye do tell to me, ' Tis ye sall hae my Fusome Fug, Your ae wife for to be, be, Your ae wife for to be.

   1859, Child, English and Scottish Ballads - Volume 8, page 142

comparative more fusome · superlative most fusome · alternative fusom · alternative fusum · alternative feusome · alternative fewsome

1. UKdialectalobsoleteHandy, deft-handed, workmanlike.

   What pleas'd him best, the warmed up some keal, And RALF dud mak a varra fusome meal,

   1785, Tim Bobbin, The Lancashire Dialect: Containing the Adventures and Misfortunes of a Lancashire Clown

   1 more example

   Whya nowt but weel , she seems a varra conny fusom wife, en I hear they hoffer et dea varra weel, en baith draas yaa way, en gitten ther lile farm varra connoly stockt;

   1840, Ann Wheeler, The Westmoreland Dialect in Four Familiar Dialogues, page 48

2. UKdialectalobsoleteNeat; handsome, comely, shapely, attractive.

   She was...as douce and fewsome as ony woman's bairn

   1867, Eliza Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg

plural fusomes

1. biologyA germ cell-specific organelle assembled from membrane skeletal proteins and membranous vesicles.

   F-actin is not detected reliably on the fusome in Drosophila female ovaries, whereas it is a major component of the male fusome.

   2007, František Baluška, Dieter Volkmann, Peter W. Barlow, Cell-Cell Channels, page 226

   2 more examples

   Cystoblasts/cystocytes also divide asymmetrically, and in doing so, the spectrosome evolves into a branched fusome in the 16-cell cyst (5,37), accumulating proteins like Bam, ankyrin, α- and β-spectrins, the adducinlike product of the hu-li tai shao gene (HtsF), dynein (Dhc64C), and Cyclin A (5,35,36).

   2004, Daryl S. Henderson, Drosophila Cytogenetics Protocols, page 95

   This demonstrates a key role of the fusome as a channel of communication between the cells for the synchronisation and differentiation of the germline cyst.

   2007, Alvaro Macieira-Coelho, Asymmetric Cell Division, page 105