imbricate
verb
Forms imbricates imbricating imbricated
- verb (transitive or intransitive) To overlap in a regular pattern.
- verb (linguistics) To undergo or cause to undergo imbrication.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin imbricātus (“tiled”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Bent and hollowed like a roof or gutter tile.
- adjective Lying over each other in regular order, so as to "break joints," like tiles or shingles on a roof, the scales on the leaf buds of plants and the cups of some acorns, or the scales of fishes; overlapping each other at the margins, as leaves in æstivation.
- verb To lay in order, one lapping over another, so as to form an imbricated surface.
Etymology [L. imbricatus, p.p. of imbricare to cover with tiles, to form like a gutter tile, fr. imbrex, -icis, a hollow tile, gutter tile, fr. imber rain.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “imbricate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details