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Pertaining to, consisting of, or resembling, membrane; as, a membranous covering or lining.

Within or beneath a membrane; as, intermembranous ossification.

A membranous appendage of the embryos of mammals, birds, and reptiles, -- in mammals serving to connect the fetus with the parent; the urinary vesicle.

Any membranous bag shaped like a leathern bottle, as the dilated end of a vessel or duct; especially the dilations of the semicircular canals of the ear.

Destitute of winglike membranous expansions, as a stem or petiole; -- opposed to atate.

A small membranous bladder or tube in which are inclosed the seedlike reproductive particles or sporules of lichens and certain fungi.

Appearing as if blistered; inflated; puckered. Bullate leaf (Bot.), a leaf, the membranous part of which rises between the veins puckered elevations convex on one side and concave on the other.

An enlargement and inflammation of a small membranous sac (one of the bursæ muscosæ), usually occurring on the first joint of the great toe.

A membranous sac containing fluid, or investing an organ or joint; as, the capsule of the lens of the eye. Also, a capsulelike organ.

A one-celled, dry, indehiscent fruit, with a thin membranous pericarp, adhering closely to the seed, so that fruit and seed are incorporated in one body, forming a single grain, as of wheat, barley, etc.

wings (elytra) hard and horny, and serving as coverings for the posterior pair, which are membranous, and folded transversely under the others when not in use. The mouth parts form two pairs of jaws (mandibles and maxillæ) adapted for chewing. Most of the Coleoptera are known as beetles and weevils.…

to cramp; to contract or ause to shrink. Such things as constrict the fibers. Arbuthnot. Membranous organs inclosing a cavity which their contraction constrict. Todd & Bowman.

when associated with the development of a false membrane in the air passages (also called membranous croup). See False croup, under False, and Diphtheria.

oup; especially, attended with the formation of a deposit or membrance like that found in membranous croup; as, croupous laryngitis. Croupous pneumonia, pneumonia attended with deposition of fibrinous matter in the air vesicles of the lungs; ordinary acute pneumonia.

A pouch or sac without opening, usually membranous and containing morbid matter, which is accidentally developed in one of the natural cavaties or in the substance of an organ.

The watery fluid contained in the membranous labyrinth of the internal ear.

-- False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with the deposit of a fibrinous membrane. -- False door or window (Arch.), the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry. -- Fals…

f the tongue; -- called also the isthmus of the fauces. On either side of the passage two membranous folds, called the pillars of the fauces, inclose the tonsils.

A thin skin; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity; hence, any thin, slight covering. He from thick films shall purge the visual ray. Pope.

A membranous, finlike, swimming organ, as in pteropod and heteropod mollusks.