a. and sb. Bot. [f. as prec. + -OID.]
A. adj. Of the nature of or resembling a Conferva; composed of articulated filaments; ‘also, applied to diseases caused by parasitic vegetations’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 311. A body resembling a bundle of confervoid threads.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 51. Algæ and confervoid growths.
B. sb. An alga of the genus Conferva or of any allied genus; ‘any low vegetable growth in stagnant water’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1854. Griffith & Henfrey, Microgr. Dict. (ed. 2), 175/2. Larger … than those of any other Confervoids.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. 266. The simplest forms of vegetable life are met with in the Confervoids.
1882. A. W. Blyth, Foods, 542. The moving reproductive spores of confervoids.
