pachydermal

Adjective

pachydermal (comparative more pachydermal, superlative most pachydermal)

1. Characterized by or characteristic of pachydermy.
   • At that point of time the skin is macroscopically seen to be slightly thickened and is in course of transition to the pachydermal stage.1931, Acta Pathologica Et Microbiologica Scandinavica
   • Periosteal changes occur in trauma, psoriatic arthritis (above ankle), HPOA, and pachydermal periostitis.2011, Alan Hakim, Gavin Clunie, Inam Haq, Oxford Handbook of Rheumatology
2. Pertaining to the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata.
   • The anterior teeth are, however, displaced before the posterior ones are developed, although they have no vertical successors, which circumstance is also characteristic of the Elephant : the shape, the structure, and the mode of implantation of the molars of the Manatee quite accord with the...1840, Richard Owen, Odontography
   • As far as the teeth, jaws, and other scattered bones enable the comparative anatomist to decide, the nototherium manifests pachydermal modifications of the marsupial type ; hence the inference that' Australia (whose largest native quadruped is now the kangaroo) was, immediately preceding the...1876, David Page, Advanced Text-book of Geology: Descriptive and Industrial, page 516
3. Pertaining to or involving elephants.
   • Thai veterinarians interviewed during the course of this research particularly commented on pachydermal aversion to their presence.1996, Rita Ringis, Elephants of Thailand in Myth, Art, and Reality, page 44
   • Elephants will assist you, in ways you can't imagine, to remember the good times. I am there never to forget. They let the good times roll and rumble. They are, as it were, pachydermal rivets, holding fast the compromised fabric of this futile, unbolted, realm.2005, David Kettle, Elephant Gnosis, page 80
4. Massive; elephantine.
   • […]which was why I was banished to the backyard while those with verbal-wallets bursting at seams, with pachydermal crock, did a sumptuous roast on the old lady's fears and pains […]2004, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe Jr., Paa: a Tribute, page 117
   • The largest kopje bulges organically out of the ground, pachydermal, pregnant, prodigious, a bastion of permanence in a land of restless change.2012, Craig Packer, Into Africa
5. Grainy.
   • The pachydermal exothecial cells of the capsule that are prevalent in rheophytes are lacking.1983, Lindbergia - Volumes 9-10, page 108
   • The calyptra, c. 3 mm tall, is rough with grain-like (pachydermal) cells, scattered over the upper half and concentrated into a loose cluster at the apex.1985, George A. M. Scott, Southern Australian Liverworts, page 42