Meanings
present singular third person inviscates · participle present inviscating · participle past inviscated · past inviscated
- obsoletetransitiveTo daub, catch, or entangle with glue or birdlime or other viscous matter.
[…] withall its food being flies and such as suddenly escape, it hath in the tongue a mucous and slymy extremity, whereby upon a sudden emission it inviscates and tangleth those insects.
1650, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book 3, Chap. 21, "Of the Cameleon"
Origin
- Latininviscatus
- Englishinviscate
From Latin inviscatus, past participle of inviscare (“to birdlime”), from in- (“in”) + viscum, viscus (“mistletoe, birdlime”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
inviscate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inviscate
“inviscate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inviscate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “inviscate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inviscate.
Source: inviscate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.