a. [ad. late L. floccōs-us, f. floccus: see -OSE.]
1. Furnished with a tuft (or tufts) of woolly hair. ? Obs.
1752. Sir J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 543. The tail [of the lion] is long, thick, and floccose.
2. Bot. Covered with or composed of flocci.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 331. In the fruticulose or foliaceous species [of Lichens], the medulla is distinctly floccose.
1874. M. Cooke, Fungi (1875), iii. 74. The spores are profuse, nestling on the floccose mycelium.
Hence Floccosely adv., in a floccose manner.
1840–68. Paxton, Bot. Dict., Floccosely-tomentose, down, disposed in little tufts.
1847. in Craig.
