ppl. a. [-ING2.] That subtends.

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1571.  Digges, Pantom., I. xx. F ij b. Make a fyne notche, or marke vpon that subtending staffe.

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1660.  R. Coke, Justice Vind., 20. What proportion … the subtending side of an isosceles right-angle triangle hath to one of the comprehending sides.

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1859.  R. F. Burton, Central Afr., in Jrnl. Geogr. Soc., XXIX. 237. The Tanganyika cannot be drained eastward by rents in a subtending mountain ridge.

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1882.  Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 599. If … the subtending leaf (bract) is developed later than the axillary branch (inflorescence).

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1900.  B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, 259/2. Subtending Leaf, that leaf whose axil gives rise to a bud or peduncle.

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