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.

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1746.  Da Costa, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 404. The cylindric, fusiform, and other Belemnites, of which the two Ends or Extremes terminate pointed.

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1805.  J. Galpine, Brit. Bot. (1806), 311. Root caulescent, fusiform.

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1826.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), IV. xxxvii. 14. The great ganglion of the rhinoceros-beetle is fusiform.

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1830.  Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 154. Seeds indefinite, very minute, fusiform, with a lax outer integument.

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1854.  Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 108. Shell fusiform, elongated.

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1877.  Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., ii. 79. Each of these elongates, and surrounds itself with a delicate, fusiform, silicious case.

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1881.  Geikie, in Nature, XXV. 2. A genus of Palæoniscid fishes, possessing a fusiform body.

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1887.  Scribner’s Mag., I. 427/2. This torpedo … is fusiform, or cigar-shaped.

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