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/bˈaɪvˌælv/ Listen

noun

Bivalve n.

(Zool.) A mollusk having a shell consisting of two lateral plates or valves joined together by an elastic ligament at the hinge, which is usually strengthened by prominences called teeth. The shell is closed by the contraction of two transverse muscles attached to the inner surface, as in the clam, or by one, as in the oyster. See Mollusca.

(Bot.) A pericarp in which the seed case opens or splits into two parts or valves.

adjective

Bivalve adj. (Zool. & Bot.) Having two shells or valves which open and shut, as the oyster and certain seed vessels.

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Etymology of 'Bivalve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bivalve" Quotes from Famous Books

... dead shell that comes handy, without distinction of species, provided it be not excessively large. I notice, in its collection of bric-a-brac, the Physa, the Paludina, the Limnaea, the Amber snail [all pond snails] and even the Pisidium [a bivalve], that little ...

— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... passing on around, and as he is much more active and alert than his companion he sees danger much farther away, and gives notice of it, asking for the door to be shut by lightly pinching the mussel's gill. But this gratitude of the Crustacean towards a sympathetic bivalve is merely a hypothesis; we do not exactly know what passes in the intimacy of these two ...

— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay

... assured us that the same formation was traceable far up the Ucayali and Huallaga. This clay from the Amazon, as examined microscopically by Prof. H. James Clark, contains fragments of gasteropod shells and bivalve casts. The red earth of the Pampas, according to Ehrenberg, contains eight fresh-water to ...

— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... folds itself together, so that the little animal acquires the aspect of a bivalve shell, the foremost limbs become transformed into very peculiar adherent feet ("prehensile antennae," Darwin), and the two following pairs are cast off; like the frontal horns. On the abdomen six pairs of powerful biramose ...

— Facts and Arguments for Darwin • Fritz Muller

... a thick disk bobbin of thread, h, fitting loosely in a case constructed in the form of a bivalve, a and d. This case is furnished with a long beak, usually forming a continuation of the periphery. The beak is intended to enter and detain the loops of upper thread, and lead them so that they ultimately envelop the shuttle, a motion of the thread ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 598, June 18, 1887 • Various

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