[ad. L. tegument-um covering, f. teg-ĕre to cover: see -MENT. So OF. tegument (13th c. in Godef.).] Something that serves to cover; a covering, coating, envelope, investment, integument. a. gen. (natural or artificial).
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 20. Ffor sunne and wynde hem make a tegument, Lest they in this be shake, in that to brent.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., iii. 32. Whatever was the solid Tegument, we finde the immediate covering to be a purple peece of silk.
1674. Phil. Trans., IX. 205. They have only a few teguments to cover themselves with in the night.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., III. i. 64. Beds … lying under that upper Stratum, or Tegument of the Earth.
c. 1B30. Hor. Smith, Addr. Mummy, xiii. Why should this worthless tegument endure If its undying guest be lost for ever?
1888. A. S. Wilson, Lyric Hopeless Love, CVIII. 315. Beneath the tegument of clay.
b. Nat. Hist. and Anat. The natural covering of the body, or of some part or organ, of an animal or plant; a skin, coat, shell, husk, or the like; spec. = TEGMEN b (Brande, Dict. Sci., 1842). Now rare or Obs.; mostly replaced by INTEGUMENT.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. vi. 97. A harder tegument or shell [in the nutmeg], which lyeth under the Mace.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., I. ix. (1765), 19. Corolla and Calyx, are the Teguments or Covers of the Stamina and Pistillum.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, I. 250. It [the eye] is composed of three coats, or teguments, one covering the other.
1864. Max Müller, Sc. Lang., Ser. II. ii. (1868), 74. If we never find skins except as the teguments of animals.
