scarious

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

French scarieux. Compare scary.

Adjective

scarious (comparative more scarious, superlative most scarious)

  1. (botany) thin, dry, membranous, and not green[1]
    • 1838, John Torrey, Asa Gray, A Flora of North America, page 422:
      A polymorphous plant, with larger (frequently three lines in diameter), more globose and racemose heads, and more scarious involucres than any form of A. vulgaris.
  2. thin, dry, membranous
    • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 169:
      Gray head goggling fowlwise on a scarious neck, turning.
  3. (zoology) scaly, scurfy

Synonyms

References
  1. “scarious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
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