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noun

Byssus n. (pl. E. byssuses; L. byssi)

A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk. (Written also byss and byssin)

(Zool.) A tuft of long, tough filaments which are formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the Pinna and Mytilus, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.

(Bot.) An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.

Asbestus.

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Etymology of 'Byssus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Byssus" Quotes from Famous Books

... is apt, for the expanded valves are not unlike the form of a bird in flight. The illustration shows a rare species, several specimens of which were found attached to the mooring-chain of a buoy by what is known as the "byssus," a bunch of tough fibres which passes through an hiatus in the margins of the valves. Like the king's daughter of the Psalmist, PTERIA PEASEI is "all glorious within," the nacreous surface, margined with lustrous black, shining like silver with a ...

— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield

Words linked to "Byssus" : fiber, beard