muscine
muscine adjective: of or pertaining to the Muscidae family of flies.
Adjective (1)
muscine (comparative more muscine, superlative most muscine)
- Of or pertaining to the Muscidae family of flies.
- One can see by the description of the ovum and this account of early blastoderm formation that the egg of Glossina is intermediate between the typical muscine ovum with its thick periplasm and the very thin peripheral cytoplasmic layer of Melophagus, […]1951, Harold Raymond Hagan, Embryology of the viviparous insects
- […] in these respects spinthera is unlike any other muscine larva so far described.1985, Peter Skidmore, The Biology of the Muscidae of the World, page 205
Adjective (2)
muscine (comparative more muscine, superlative most muscine)
- Murine; of, pertaining to, resembling, or being a mouse.
- If true, there is something peculiarly interesting in these periodical visitations—or, I should, perhaps, rather say migrations—of mice, for I was informed that these muscine armies come from the interior, or from that direction, towards the sea, which they boldly enter, and are consequently...1870, Henry Reeks, "Notes on the Zoology of Newfoundland" in The Zoologist (2nd series, vol. 5, March 1870), page 2042
- My friend explained to me that every evening two little mice came out from behind the skirting-board in his dining-room, and sang for their supper of cheese, biscuit, and other muscine delicacies, which he took care to place on the carpet for them always at the same hour.1878 November, Henry Lee, “Singing Mice”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 14, page 102
Synonyms of muscine
Forms of muscine
| comparative | more muscine |
|---|---|
| superlative | most muscine |
Origin of muscine
Musca + -ine
Irregularly formed from translingual Mus (“genus of mice”) + -ine. See murine
Questions about muscine
- What does muscine mean?
- Muscine means of or pertaining to the Muscidae family of flies.
- What part of speech is muscine?
- Muscine is an adjective.
Words near muscine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: muscine (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.
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