Pectinal
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A fish whose bones resemble the teeth of a comb.
"Now although Galen in this place makes instance but in one, yet there are other fishes, whose eies regard the heavens, as Plane, and cartilagineous fishes, as pectinals, or such as have their bones made laterally like a comb; for when they apply themselves to sleep or rest upon the white side, their eies on the other side look upward toward heaven."
- 1 Of or relating to a comb; resembling a comb.
"pectinal teeth"
Example
More examples"Now although Galen in this place makes instance but in one, yet there are other fishes, whose eies regard the heavens, as Plane, and cartilagineous fishes, as pectinals, or such as have their bones made laterally like a comb; for when they apply themselves to sleep or rest upon the white side, their eies on the other side look upward toward heaven."
Etymology
Latin pecten (“comb”). See pectinate.
More for "pectinal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.