Pl. laminæ. Chiefly scientific. [L. lām(m)ina. Cf. LAME sb.1] A thin plate, scale, layer or flake (of metal, etc.).

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1656.  Blount, Glossogr., Lamina, a thin plate of any mettal, most commonly such as Sculpters use to engrave upon.

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1670.  J. Beale, in Phil. Trans., V. 1159. ’Tis … full of very small and thin Laminæ, seeming to be Metalline, and bright like the purest Silver.

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1674.  Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, 122. I think it easiest to consider Elastic, Springing, or Resilient Bodies, as Laminæ, Laths, or Lines.

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1709.  F. Hauksbee, Phys.-Mech. Exper., Suppl. (1719), 329. Pieces of Brass Laminæ, whose Thickness when laid one upon another,… made a Distance between the Planes, equal to … 1/16 of an inch.

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1792.  J. Belknap, Hist. New Hampsh., III. 98. This bark is composed of several laminæ.

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1797.  M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 51. Many small broken laminæ of the coagulable lymph.

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1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 63. Lead … may be reduced into laminæ and plates thinner than paper.

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1832.  Gell, Pompeiana, II. xiii. 22. The chamber was covered with laminæ of rare marbles.

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1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxi. 148. At some places the ice had been weathered into laminæ not more than a line in thickness.

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  b.  Anat., etc. A thin layer of bone, membrane, or other structure.

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1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., In Anatomy, Laminæ are the Plates or Tables of the Scull, two in number.

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1815.  W. Phillips, Outl. Min. & Geol. (1818), 105. These shells … are … extremely brittle, and readily separate into laminæ.

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1843.  Youatt, Horse, 375. The Horny Laminæ [of the foot].

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1859.  Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (1872), 183. The middle and longest lamina in the Greenland whale is ten, twelve, or even 15 feet in length.

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1864.  Mayhew, Illustr. Horse Managemt., 95. The laminæ, or the highly-sensitive covering of the internal foot, secrete the inward layer of horn.

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1881.  Mivart, Cat, 35. A superior broad and flat portion called the neural lamina.

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  c.  Geol. The thinnest separable layer in stratified rock deposits.

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1794.  Sullivan, View Nat., I. 421. In caverns and fissures laminæ of spar … crystallize in various forms.

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1849.  Murchison, Siluria, vii. 129. The laminæ of deposit being marked by layers of shells and corals.

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1872.  Nicholson, Palæont., 6. The finer beds of clay or sand will all be arranged in thicker or thinner layers or laminæ.

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  d.  Bot. (a) A thin ‘plate’ of tissue, as in the ‘gill’ of a mushroom. (b) The blade, ‘limb,’ or expanded portion of a leaf. (c) The (usually widened) upper part or ‘limb’ of a petal. (d) The expanded part of the thallus or frond in algæ, etc.

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1760.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., I. iii. (1765), 7. Lamina, a thin Plate, which is the upper Part, and usually spreading.

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1776–96.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 393. The 2 lamina [sic] or plates which constitute each gill.

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1830.  Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 153. Leaves radical, with a hollow urn-shaped petiole, at the apex of which is articulated the lamina.

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1861.  Cooke, Man. Struct. Bot. (1893), 63. The upper or free portion [of a petal] is called the lamina or limb.

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1875.  Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 296. A cellular lamina or a mass of tissue which fixes itself by root-hairs and produces the thallus by growth at its apex.

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  e.  Kinematics.

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1837.  Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci., VIII. vi. II. 331. Any combination of rods, strings, and laminæ.

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1878.  J. Wolstenholme, Math. Problems (ed. 2), 416. A lamina moves in its own plane so that two fixed points of it describe straight lines with accelerations f, f′.

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1882.  Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 39. The locus traced out in the body … is a circle concentric with the lamina.

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