Despine
verb
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To remove the spines from a plant.
"Three specimens are partially decorticated. One of these items is not longitudinally split but is despined while another is longitudinally split into quarters and is despined. The last Yucca thomsoniana specimen is longitudinally split into less than quarter-sized segments and is despined."
Example
More examples"Three specimens are partially decorticated. One of these items is not longitudinally split but is despined while another is longitudinally split into quarters and is despined. The last Yucca thomsoniana specimen is longitudinally split into less than quarter-sized segments and is despined."
Etymology
From de- + spine.
More for "despine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.