a. [f. L. fūs-us spindle + -(I)FORM. Cf. F. fusiforme.] Spindle-shaped; tapering from the middle towards each end; esp. in Bot., Entom. and Zool.
1746. Da Costa, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 404. The cylindric, fusiform, and other Belemnites, of which the two Ends or Extremes terminate pointed.
1805. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot. (1806), 311. Root caulescent, fusiform.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), IV. xxxvii. 14. The great ganglion of the rhinoceros-beetle is fusiform.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 154. Seeds indefinite, very minute, fusiform, with a lax outer integument.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 108. Shell fusiform, elongated.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., ii. 79. Each of these elongates, and surrounds itself with a delicate, fusiform, silicious case.
1881. Geikie, in Nature, XXV. 2. A genus of Palæoniscid fishes, possessing a fusiform body.
1887. Scribners Mag., I. 427/2. This torpedo is fusiform, or cigar-shaped.