Defn: One of a series of carbohydrates, commonly called vegetable jelly, found very widely distributed in the vegetable kingdom, especially in ripe fleshy fruits, as apples, cranberries, etc. It is extracted as variously colored, translucent substances, which are soluble in hot water but become viscous on cooling.
PECTINAL
Pec"ti*nal, a. Etym: [L. pecten comb. See Pectinate.]
Defn: Of or pertaining to a comb; resembling a comb.
PECTINAL
Pec"ti*nal, n.
Defn: A fish whose bone Sir T. Browne.
PECTINATE; PECTINATED
Pec"ti*na`te, Pec"ti*na`ted, a. Etym: [L. pectinatus, p.pr. of
pectinare to comb, from pecten, -inis, a comb; cf. Gr. feax hair,
OHG. fahs, E. paxwax.]
1. Resembling the teeth of a comb.
2. (Nat. Hist.)
Defn: Having very narrow, close divisions, in arrangement and regularity resembling those of a comb; comblike; as, a pectinate leaf; pectinated muscles. See Illust. (e) of Antennæ.
3. Interlaced, like two combs. [R.] "Our fingers pectinated, or shut together." Sir T. Browne. Pectinate claw (Zoöl.), a claw having a serrate edge, found in some birds, and supposed to be used in cleaning the feathers.