English

Alternative forms

• cucumeriform (mycology, rare)

Adjective

cucumiform ‎(comparative more cucumiform, superlative most cucumiform)

1. Shaped like a cucumber; having the form of a cylinder tapered and rounded at the ends, and possibly curved.
   • 1826, William Kirby and William Spence, An Introduction to Entomology IV, page 265

     Cucumiform (Cucumiformis). Cucumber-shaped. Whose longitudinal section is oblong, and transverse circular.

   • 1838, The Penny Cyclopædia XII: “Hadley, John–Intestina”, Holothuʹria, Holothuria Family, page 270

     The Cucumiform Holothuriæ, whose body is but little elongated, more or less fusiform, pentagonal, with tentaculiform suckers forming five ambulacra, one on each angle.

   • 1892, Pamphlets on Biology: Kofoid Collection, page 106

     The animal is cucumiform, tapering slightly at both ends, and possesses a short and inconspicuous conical tail (PI. 11. fig. 6).

   • 1925, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia L, page 149

     The ova (in an early stage) are orange in colour, broadly cucumiform in shape, and about 2·4 mm. long by 1·65 mm. wide.

   • 1935, Records of the Indian Museum XXXVII, page 450

     Regular, simple, globose, ovoid, ellipsoid, fusiform, cucumiform or moniliform, local or subextensive, terminal or basal, general tuberous swellings, about 30–45 mm. long and 10–15 mm. in diameter.

   • 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (Reynal & Hitchcock), page 207

     He opened his eyes . . . But the abominable impact on his whole being at this moment of the fact that that hideously elongated cucumiform bundle of blue nerves and gills below the steaming unselfconscious stomach had sought its pleasure in his wife’s body brought him trembling to his feet.

   • 1955, William Gaddis, The Recognitions (Harcourt, Brace), page 329

     She was there, tumbling the marvelous cucumiform weights down upon a chest which looked as though it would cave in under such manna.

   • 1965, Anthony Bloomfield, Throw (Scribner), page 59

     He found his right hand had slid to his groin, taking the cucumiform warmth and familiarity for comfort, like an infant sucking teat or thumb.

   • 1975, North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, Technical Bulletin, issues 232–238, page 47

     Grape colaspis overwinter as larvae within cucumiform cells in the soil.

   • 1978, Stanford University Publications: Geological Sciences XIV–XVII, page 152

     Small proximate dinoflagellate cysts with oval to elliptical outline in dorsoventral view and cucumiform to oval to elliptical in lateral and oblique views; average width/length ratio (W.L.R.) varies from 0.65 to 0.81.

   • 1993, Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde LXIII, page 46

     We coined the following expressions: “soie cucumiforme” (cucumiform seta) for a medium-sized blunt mesochaeta, “soie bacilliforme” (bacilliform seta) for a short blunt mesochaeta, “soie gladiforme” (gladiform seta) for a rather short and thick seta looking like a two-edged sword, and “soie en crosse” (crooked seta) for a blunt seta ending by a crook.

   • 2000, African Entomology (Entomological Society of Southern Africa) IX, page 114

     The sensory appendix at the apex of antennal segment II in Eletica is unique; it is cucumiform in shape and extremely large (longer than the length of the antenna itself).

   • 2003, Robin D. Gill, Rise, Ye Sea Slugs! 浮け, page 29

     The maria are obviously “sea-things” (mar+ia) and cucu, “cucumiform,” (or, wrongly, “cuculate,” “hooded”), but I imagine a cuckoo, a virgin and, with the species Cucumaria curata, a curate, as well.

   • 2011, Terry Pratchett, Snuff: Discworld Novel 39, page 17

     Uncharacteristically for him, Lord Vetinari laughed out loud. He very nearly gloated at the downfall of his enemy and slammed his copy of the Ankh-Morpork Times, open at the crossword page, on to his desk. ‘Cucumiform, shaped like a cucumber or a variety of squash! l thumb my nose at you, madam!’

Related terms

• cucumber

Translations

References

• “Cucumiform, a.” listed on page 1,237 of volume II (C) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1893]
    Cucumiform (kiukiū·mifǭɹm), a. rare.^—⁰ [f. L. cucumis cucumber + -form.] Of the shape of a cucumber. [¶] 1860 Worcester cites Maunder.
• “cucumiform, a.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]