Search the Dictionary

A rudimental antler of a young male of the red deer.

A small protuberance on the stem or branches of a plant, containing the rudiments of future leaves, flowers, or stems; an undeveloped branch or flower.

One who is receiving rudimentary instruction in the doctrines of Christianity; a neophyte; in the primitive church, one officially recognized as a Christian, and admitted to instruction preliminary to admission to full membership in the church.

A short caulis or stem, esp. the rudimentary stem seen in the embryo of seed; -- otherwise called a radicle.

One of a tropical family of snakelike lizards (Chalcidæ), having four small or rudimentary legs.

A kind of spider monkey (Ateles chameck), having the thumbs rudimentary and without a nail.

The first rudiments of an embryo in generation. Dr. H. More.

Having concealed or rudimentary gills.

In any animal, esp. of the Herbivora, a rudimentary claw or small hoof not reaching the ground. Some cut off the dewclaws [of greyhounds]. J. H. Walsh.

, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline. He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay.

f purposelessness; a term applied by Haeckel to that branch of physiology which treats of rudimentary organs, in view of their being useless to the life of the organism. To the doctrine of dysteleology, or the denial of final causes, a proof of the real existence of such a thing as instinct must necessarily be fatal. W…

The simplest or fundamental principles of any system in philosophy, science, or art; rudiments; as, the elements of geometry, or of music.

Pertaining to rudiments or first principles; rudimentary; elementary. "The elemental rules of erudition." Cawthorn.

Pertaining to, or treating of, the elements, rudiments, or first principles of anything; initial; rudimental; introductory; as, an elementary treatise.

The first rudiments of an organism, whether animal or plant; as:

Of or pertaining to an embryo; embryonal; rudimentary. Embryonic sac or vesicle (Bot.), the vesicle within which the embryo is developed in the ovule; -- sometimes called also amnios sac, and embryonal sac.

he vena cava inferior. It directs the blood towards the left auricle in the fetus, but is rudimentary and functionless in the adult.

novice; one in the rudiments of knowledge; especially, a student during his fist year in a college or university. He drank his glass and cracked his joke, And freshmen wondered as he spoke. Goldsmith. Freshman class, the lowest of the four classes in an American college. [ U. S.]

reduced to a small, early perishing body; and in seed plants it is usually microscopic or rudimentary.

A rudimentary form of crystallite, spherical in shape.