membranousadj.

1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 48/1 Certayne membranouse pellicles intermixed with the excrementes.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. xx. 155 Two black filaments or membranous strings which extend into the long and shorter cornicle upon protrusion.

1757 E. Burke Philos. Enq. Sublime & Beautiful iv. §11. 135 The ear-drum and the other membranous parts.

1765 F. Home Inq. Croup 28 The mucus..was formed into a membranous crust.

1811 J. C. Lettsom in T. J. Pettigrew Mem. Life & Writings (1817) III. 5 This [croupy] exudation consists of a membranous substance.

1875 F. T. Buckland Log-bk. Fisherman 149 The stomach of the bittern is a membranous bag.

1912 E. A. Minchin Introd. Study Protozoa vi. 89 The ring of blepharoplasts in Lophomonas is supported on the edge of a membranous structure.

1982 F. Raphael Byron 11 Byron was born in a caul, a membranous sac, which was easily removed.

2000 Human Pathol. 31 1171 Some pleomorphic B cell lymphomas with membranous CD138 expression show a peculiar serosal spreading.

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1017 Under their sheathy wings..lye hid their membranous wings.

1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) II. 135 That [sc. the seed] of the maple has two membranous pinions similar to the wings of a fly.

1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. 86 These [modifications] arise either from the addition of parenchyma, when leaves become succulent, or from the non-development of it, when they become membranous.

1952 P. Mann Systematics Flowering Plants ii. 234 At the point of junction of the leaf sheath and blade there is a small upgrowth, the ligule, which is membranous in temperate grasses.

1969 R. F. Chapman Insects i. 3 Each segment has a dorsal sclerite..joined to a ventral sclerite..by lateral membranous areas.

1991 R. Mistry Such Long Journey (1992) 65 He stretched the four membranous wings symmetrically on a spreading board.

1829 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) II. 444 Which [name (sc. bronchlemmitis)], as importing membranous or membrane-like inflammation of the bronchiæ,..is expressly descriptive of that concrete or tubular effusion.

1859 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 61 150 The following remarks will be confined as far as possible to the membranous disease, commonly called in this vicinity ‘membranous croup’—a true diphtheritis.

1876 J. S. Bristowe Treat. Theory & Pract. Med. ii. i. 206 Although membranous croup occurs in adults, it is children who mainly suffer.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. III. 943 Dyspeptic membranous colitis.

1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xxiv. 628 Membranous laryngitis may occur in diphtheria and in streptococcal infections.

1968 H. O. Mackey & J. P. Mackey Handbk. Dis. Skin (ed. 9) xxix. 310 (heading) Infectious and membranous stomatitis.

1994 Pediatric Clinics N. Amer. 41 265 Two conditions, spasmodic croup and membranous laryngotracheobronchitis, are also frequent causes of [airway] obstruction on an inflammatory basis.

1875 tr. K. Schroeder in tr. H. W. von Ziemssen et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. X. 334 Membranous dysmenorrhœa.

1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xxxvi. 1017 Complete exfoliation of the superficial layers of the endometrium may occur; the mass may be extruded as a uterine cast, and the condition is usually associated with painful menstruation (membranous dysmenorrhœa).

1978 Southern Med. Jrnl. 71 1247/1 Membranous dysmenorrhea may be observed in (1) ectopic pregnancy, (2) after prolonged administration of progestogen, or (3) as an idiopathic condition.

1950 E. T. Bell Renal Dis. (ed. 2) vi. 146 Membranous glomerulonephritis–lipoid nephrosis.

1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 97 855 Possible mechanisms of immune injury in post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, lupus nephritis, idiopathic membranous glomerulonephritis [etc.].

1984 J. R. Tighe & D. R. Davies Pathol. (ed. 4) xviii. 176 Membranous glomerulonephritis produces proteinuria, the nephrotic syndrome and ultimately impaired renal function.

1990 Internat. Immunol. 2 1013/1 Heymann nephritis..has received much attention because of its close resemblance to human membranous glomerulonephritis.

1840 G. V. Ellis Demonstr. Anat. 290 There is..a fluid..contained in the osseous labyrinth, and in it the membranous labyrinth floats.

1886 A. H. Buck Ref. Handbk. Med. Sci. II. 563/2 The vestibular membranous labyrinth is divided into sacs: (1) the oblong utricle or..common sinus [etc.].

1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xix. 1102 The hair cells in higher vertebrates all lie in the epithelium of the membranous labyrinth of the inner ear.

1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados 293 The leaves..somewhat resemble those of a small curled lettuce, but are far more membranously thin.

1983 S. Plant tr. M. Moser Keys to Agarics & Boleti iii. 413 Stipe brown, sometimes almost membranously ringed, white-scaly.