a. and sb. [f. FUNG-US + -OID. Cf. F. fougoïde.]
A. adj. Resembling a fungus or its qualities; of the nature of a fungus.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 252/3. Fungoid, resembling a fungus; that is, irregular in form and fleshy in texture.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlv. (1856), 411. The familiar mushroom or fungoid appearance which is shown in many of the plates.
1861. S. Thomson, Wild Fl., II. (ed. 4), 133. Scarcely a decaying substance is there, whether animal or vegetable, which does not form the site for a crop of the minute fungoid moulds.
1874. M. Cooke, Fungi (1875), iv. 100. The latter [Peziza venosa] has the most decided nitrous odour, and also fungoid flavour.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xi. 272. Nor is it surprising that Drosera should be enabled to profit by the absorption of these salts, for yeast and other low fungoid forms flourish in solutions of ammonia, if the other necessary elements are present.
b. Path. (See FUNGUS 2.)
1844. Dufton, Deafness, 89. An inert substance in the ear … surrounded by fungoid growths.
1845. Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., I. 100. Cancer, or fungoid disease.
1875. B. W. Richardson, Dis. Mod. Life, 30. The malignant growths include fungoid tumour.
1878. Habershon, Dis. Abdomen, 42. The diphtheritic membrane is fungoid in character.
B. sb. A fungoid plant. Also attrib.
1861. H. Macmillan, Footnotes fr. Page Nature, 211. The mushroom, which may be regarded as exhibiting the highest development of fungoid life.
1891. Daily News, 3 Nov., 6/1. They lived on a spoonful or two of arrowroot, with such fungoids as they could gather in the forest.
