a. and sb. [ad. late L. lenticulāris, f. lenticula, dim. of lent-, lens lentil: see LENS. Cf. F. lenticulaire.]
A. adj.
1. Having the form of a lens or of a lentil; resembling a lens or lentil in form; double convex.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., Ep. Ded. Lenticular optick Glasses of crystal.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 24. The Crystalline Humour, which is of a lenticular Figure.
1777. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., II. 1049. The lenticular seed-vessels white.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., I. 521. They have all a lenticular form very much flattened.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 46. Hewson … found the red particles of the human blood to be lenticular.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., viii. (1858), 151. It [duckweed] consists of lenticular floating fronds.
1867–77. G. F. Chambers, Astron., I. vii. 93. The Zodiacal Light is a peculiar nebulous light of a conical or lenticular form.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 58. Lenticular grains (e. g. in the endosperm of wheat) have a lenticular nucleus.
b. Special collocations: lenticular bed Geol., ‘a bed which thins away in all directions’ (Green, Phys. Geol., 1877); lenticular bone = the orbicular bone (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1888); † lenticular fever, a fever attended with an eruption of small red pimples (Worc. 1860 citing Dunglison); lenticular ganglion = ciliary ganglion (see CILIARY); lenticular gland, (a) LENTICEL 1; (b) one of the lentiform mucous follicles at the base of the tongue; lenticular instrument, knife, a scraper used in osteotomy; lenticular loop, a set of fibers that pass outward beneath the optic thalamus through the internal capsule; lenticular nucleus, the lower of the two grey nuclei of the corpus striatum; lenticular ore (see quot. 1862); lenticular process, a process on the incus of a mammal; lenticular stereoscope (see quot. 1869).
1849. Murchison, Siluria, viii. 176. Including some *lenticular beds of conglomerates.
1793. Young, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIII. 174. The *lenticular ganglion.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 94. The ophthalmic or lenticular ganglion, a small roundish-shaped body, is redder in colour in one subject than in another.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1839), 67. *Lenticular glands are brown oval spots found upon the bark of many plants.
1672. Wiseman, Wounds, I. ix. 95. This is to be done by the *Lenticular instrument made for that purpose.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 167. The disc of bone having been removed, and the edges levelled with a *lenticular knife.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 501. That degeneration of the central link of the bulbar nuclei associated with symmetrical lesions of the cortex … and in particular of the outer segment of the *lenticular nucleus.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 234. Beds of red argillaceous iron-ore, called *lenticular ore, from the small flattened grains which compose it.
1869. Tyndall, Notes Lect. Light, 31. The instrument most used by the public is the *Lenticular Stereoscope of Sir David Brewster. In it the two projections are combined by means of two half lenses with their edges turned inwards.
2. a. Of or pertaining to a lens. rare.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. (ed. 2), 132. Its consumption of oil and stores … is not more than that of the lenticular light.
b. Of or pertaining to the (crystalline) lens of the eye.
1822–44. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), III. 166. The most frequent species of lenticular cataract is that called hard or firm.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 493. Tension of the left eye, in which there was commencing lenticular opacity.
3. Comb., as lenticular-shaped.
1835. Poe, Adv. Hans Pfaall, Wks. 1864, I. 17. The lenticular-shaped phenomenon … called the zodiacal light.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 63/2. Filled up with lenticular shaped blocks.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 191. These pendulums have generally lenticular shaped bobs.
† B. sb. Obs.
a. A lenticular glass or lens. b. = A lenticular knife (see A. 1 b).
1658. trans. Porta’s Nat. Magic, XVII. 368. A Convex Lenticular kindleth fire most violently.
1758. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 68. We … contented ourselves with removing some Asperities at the Circumference of the Fracture with the Lenticular.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 484. The Lenticular is an instrument, apparently better adapted to its intent, than experience can allow to be the case.
