[a. Gr. χιτών frock, tunic; coat of mail.]
ǁ 1. The ancient Greek tunic.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 337. The male chiton was a woollen shirt originally without sleeves.
1885. Athenæum, 5 Dec., 741/2. His dress, a scarlet chiton bordered with gold.
2. A genus of Mollusks having a boat-shaped shell consisting of a series of eight separate plates in contact or overlapping each other.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 301. The anatomy of the chiton.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. ix. 266. These with the multivalve Chitons, form the Gastropods.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., viii. 503. The Chitons have existed from the Silurian epoch to the present day, apparently with very little modification.
