inviscate

inviscate

English

Etymology

From Latin inviscatus, past participle of inviscare (“to birdlime”), from in- (“in”) + viscum, viscus (“mistletoe, birdlime”).

Verb

inviscate (third-person singular simple present inviscates, present participle inviscating, simple past and past participle inviscated)

1. (transitive) To daub or catch with glue or birdlime; to entangle with glutinous matter.
   • 1650, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book 3, Chap. 21, "Of the Cameleon":

     […] 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.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for inviscate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

• Vectisian, vaticines