a. [f. mod.L. crustāceus, f. crusta crust, hard shell: see -ACEOUS.]
1. Pertaining to, or of the nature of, a crust or hard integument. Crustaceous lichens (in Bot.): See quot. 1882.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Crustaceous … pertaining to the crust, hard shell or pill of any thing.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 3. Their crustaceous Tunica Cornea.
1762. B. Stillingfleet, Œcon. Nature, Misc. Tracts 78. The crustaceous liverworts are the first foundation of vegetation.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 145. The outer integument [of the seed] crustaceous, the inner membranous.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 319. The Thallus of Lichens is commonly developed in the form of incrustations which cover stones and the bark of trees…. These Crustaceous Lichens, as they are termed [etc.].
b. Path. Characterized by crusts or scabs.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 23. The discovery of the crustaceous Cow-pox…. The ulcers on the hands and arms assumed the crustaceous form.
2. Of animals: Having a hard integument.
1659. H. More, Immort. Soul, II. xi. (1662), 108. Wasps and Hornets … the Animal Spirits not easily evaporating through their crustaceous Bodies.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 16. Mites in Cheese…. It seems they are sheath’d and crustaceous Animals (as Scarabees and such like Insects are).
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), III. xxix. 168. Crustaceous forms in Coleoptera.
3. spec. in Zool. Belonging to the class Crustacea, crustacean.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xvii. 151. Crustaceous animals, Lobsters, Shrimps, and Crevises.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 106. The shell-fish of the softer crustaceous kind.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 320. Testaceous and Crustaceous Fish.
1873. J. G. Bertram, Harvest of Sea (ed. 3), 300. Old men pottering about the rocks setting lobster-pots, doing business in the crustaceous delicacies of the season.
b. Crab-like; like a crustacean.
1842. Blackw. Mag., LI. 377. Retiring in a crustaceous or crab-like manner from the Court.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 205. Thy poor crustaceous efforts at self-isolation.
Hence Crustaceousness.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Crustaceousness, hardness, like, or being covered with a Shell, as Shell-fish.
1755. in Johnson.
