Word.ws English Dictionary

loricate

/ˈlɒɹɪkeɪt/US/ˈlɔɹɪkeɪt/

loricate verb: to cover with some protecting substance, as with lute, a crust, coating, or plates.

loricate: to cover with some protecting substance, as with lute, a crust, coating, or plates
Image: Picturepest, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

loricate (third-person singular simple present loricates, present participle loricating, simple past and past participle loricated)

  1. (transitive) To cover with some protecting substance, as with lute, a crust, coating, or plates.

Adjective

loricate (not comparable)

  1. Possessing a lorica (enclosing shell).
    • ...so far as my experience goes, all loricate Rotifera are hatched with the lorica already developed.1887 P.H.Gosse. Twelve New Species of Rotifera. Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society. June 1887. Transactions of the Society. VIII. p. 363
    • The third order, Ploïma, is divided into a loricate and an illoricate group, which are not, however, very sharply separated; as in some cases the outer layer of the skin is, though horny, yet thin and flexible.1891 William B.Carpenter, 7th ed rev. W.H.Dallinger. The Microscope and its Revelations. p. 718. pub: London J.&A. Churchill
    Synonyms:
    shelled
    Antonyms:
    aloricate
  2. Of or pertaining to the rotifers with thick, rigid cuticles and a box-like shape.
    Antonyms:
    aloricate

Noun

loricate (plural loricates)

  1. Any animal covered with bony scales, such as the crocodile or pangolin.

Synonyms of loricate

Antonyms

Forms of loricate

Verb
third-person singular presentloricates
present participleloricating
past participleloricated
pastloricated
Noun
pluralloricates

Origin of loricate

First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin lōricātus, perfect passive participle of lōrīcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from lōrica (“a coat of mail or breastplate”).

First attested in 1826; borrowed from Latin lōrīcātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix).

Words formed from loricate

Questions about loricate

What does loricate mean?
Loricate means to cover with some protecting substance, as with lute, a crust, coating, or plates.
What part of speech is loricate?
Loricate can be a verb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce loricate?
Loricate is pronounced /ˈlɒɹɪkeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of loricate?
The past tense of loricate is loricated.

Words near loricate in the dictionary

  1. loricarioid
  2. loricarioids
  3. loricas
  4. loricatan
  5. loricatans
  6. loricate
  7. loricated
  8. loricates
  9. loricating
  10. lorication
  11. lorications

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loricate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-loricate.wav.

Cite this entry: “loricate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loricate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.