%atop%

adv. On or at the top. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. ba`sis base + 'o`mma eye + fe`rein to bear. ] (Zool.) A group of Pulmonifera having the eyes at the base of the tentacles, including the common pond snails. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Gr. &unr_;. See Catopter. ] Of or pertaining to catoptrics; produced by reflection. [ 1913 Webster ]

Catoptric light, a light in which the rays are concentrated by reflectors into a beam visible at a distance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. catoptrique. See Catropric. ] (Physics) That part of optics which explains the properties and phenomena of reflected light, and particularly that which is reflected from mirrors or polished bodies; -- formerly called anacamptics. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_; mirror + -mancy. See Catopter. ] (Antiq.) A species of divination, which was performed by letting down a mirror into water, for a sick person to look at his face in it. If his countenance appeared distorted and ghastly, it was an ill omen; if fresh and healthy, it was favorable. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Gr. &unr_; mirror, fr. &unr_; visible. ] A reflecting optical glass or instrument; a mirror. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Obs. ] See Catopter. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a natural family coextensive with the genus Ceratophyllum; the hornworts.
Syn. -- family Ceratophyllaceae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. the sole genus constituting the family Ceratophyllaceae; the hornworts.
Syn. -- genus Ceratophyllum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. the type genus of the Ceratopogonidae.
Syn. -- genus Ceratopogon. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a natural family of insects including the biting midges and sand flies.
Syn. -- family Ceratopogonidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a suborder of extinct animals including triceratops.
Syn. -- suborder Ceratopsia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. any of several four-footed herbivorous horned dinosaurs with enormous beaked skulls, of the late Cretaceous in North America and Mongolia.
Syn. -- horned dinosaur. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. an extinct family of American ceratopsian dinosaurs.
Syn. -- family Ceratopsidae. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Bot.) a genus of water ferns.
Syn. -- genus Ceratopteris. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, color + fe`rein to bear. ] 1. (Zool.) A contractile cell or vesicle containing liquid pigment and capable of changing its form or size, thus causing changes of color in the translucent skin of such animals as possess them. They are highly developed and numerous in the cephalopods. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) One of the granules of protoplasm, which in mass give color to the part of the plant containing them. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. de`rma, -atos, skin + pa`qos suffering. ] (Med.) Of or pertaining to skin diseases, or their cure. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. de`rma, -atos, skin + fyto`n plant. ] (Med.) A fungus infecting and parasitic on the skin, especially one which causes disease; as, ringworm is caused by a dermatophyte.

n. A small genus of large epiphytic or terrestrial orchids of Southeastern Asia to Polynesia; the giants of the Orchidaceae having long narrow leaves and drooping flower clusters often 6 feet long.
Syn. -- genus Grammatophyllum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. a"i^ma, a"i`matos, blood + filei^n to love. ] (Zool.) A division of Chiroptera, including the bloodsucking bats. See Vampire. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Haemato- + Gr. pla`ssein to mold. ] (Anat.) Same as Haematoblast. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Haemato- + -plastic. ] (Physiol.) Blood formative; -- applied to a substance in early fetal life, which breaks up gradually into blood vessels. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Haemato- + Gr. porfy`ra purple. ] (Physiol. Chem.) See Haematoin. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., fr. Gr. a"i^ma, a"i`matos, blood + filei^n to love. ] (Med.) Same as hemophilia; -- an obsolete term. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

n. [ Gr. ke`ras, -atos, a horn + &unr_; a plant. ] (Zool.) A gorgonian coral having a horny axis. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. nh^ma, nh`matos, a thread + fe`rein to bear. ] (Zool.) Same as Coelenterata. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Onomatopoeia. ] An imitative word; an onomatopoetic word. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L., fr. Gr. &unr_;; 'o`noma, 'ono`matos, a name + poiei^n to make. ] (Philol.) The formation of words in imitation of sounds; a figure of speech in which the sound of a word is imitative of the sound of the thing which the word represents; as, the buzz of bees; the hiss of a goose; the crackle of fire. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It has been maintained by some philologist that all primary words, especially names, were formed by imitation of natural sounds, but this is not believed by most. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

a. Onomatopoetic. Whitney. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to onomatopoeia; characterized by onomatopoeia; imitative; as, an onomatopoetic writer or word. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Onomatopoeia. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Palato- + pterygoid. ] (Anat.) Pertaining to the palatine and pterygoid region of the skull; as, the palatopterygoid cartilage, or rod, from which the palatine and pterygoid bones are developed. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. [ NL., fr. Gr. peri`patos a walking about. ] (Zool.) The type genus of Peripatopsidae, consisting of onychophorans (lowly organized invertebrates related evolutionarily to the arthropods, also called “walking worms” AND “velvet worms”) found chiefly in Asiatic and African tropical regions, in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and tropical America.
Syn. -- genus Peripatopsis. [ 1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5 ]

The average resident of the Northern Hemisphere is probably not familiar with the Onychophora; they are restricted to forest regions of South America, Africa, the Caribbean, and Oceania. Shy creatures, able to hide in incredibly tight crevices, these “velvet worms” (about ninety living species known) are rarely seen even in their natural habitat. Yet onychophorans are of great interest to biologists, because they seem to be related to arthropods, and give us an idea of what the ancestors of the arthropods may have been like. Although they are rare as fossils, a number that have been found from the Cambrian period. These fossils show that abundant marine relatives of the Onychophora flourished in the seas 520 million years ago. From: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/onychoph/onychophora.html [ PJC ]

In the 1913 Webster Peripatus was identified with the now disused order Malacopoda (within the phylum arthropoda); however, Malacopoda is now assigned to a group contained within the phylum Onycophora. The name Peripatus has also been used (possibly erroneously) to designate a specific species, as indicated in the following quotation found on the internet. [ PJC ]

The onychophora, peripatus, is a unique creature, found in New Zealand. There is no other like peripatus. It is probably a creature from the dawn of time, as it seems to have a fossil representative of the most early invertebrates: Aysheaia, as may be found in some deposits of Burgess Shale.
Aside from a lovely name, Peripatus doesn't look much like an earth creature. It is also frequently colored blue. It has a mixture of attributes similar to both annelida and arthopoda. I have also found interesting the arguments taxonomists have had for years over the creature; it's taxonomy has been fussed and fought over, and changed several times. Mostly, there just isn't anything like it.
Its pre-historic relative (which looks just like it), lived at a time when mother nature was just begining to make complex, multi-cellular creatures, and most of them (with the exception of the jellyfish) looked like pure experiments in physical design. No decendants remain of them, except Peripatus. They were all bizzare in the extreme, like something from a sci-fi nightmare. And they are all gone.
Except Peripatus. Peripatus still remains. It is totally bizzare, and totally unique. Jonathon R. Oglesbee [ PJC ]

n. [ Pneumato- + Gr. fe`rein to bear. ] (Zool.) One of the Pneumonophora. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. sw^ma, sw`matos, body + pleyra` side. ] (Anat.) The outer, or parietal, one of the two lamellae into which the vertebrate blastoderm divides on either side of the notochord, and from which the walls of the body and the amnion are developed. See Splanchnopleure. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the somatopleure. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Spermato- + Gr. fe`rein to bear. ] 1. (Physiol.) Same as Spermospore. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A capsule or pocket inclosing a number of spermatozoa. They are present in many annelids, brachiopods, mollusks, and crustaceans. In cephalopods the structure of the capsule is very complex. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Physiol.) Producing seed, or sperm; seminiferous; as, the so-called spermatophorous cells. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL.; spermato- + Gr. &unr_; plant. ] (Bot.) A phylum embracing the highest plants, or those that produce seeds; the seed plants, or flowering plants. They form the most numerous group, including over 120, 000 species. In general, the group is characterized by the marked development of the sporophyte, with great differentiation of its parts (root, stem, leaves, flowers, etc.); by the extreme reduction of the gametophyte; and by the development of seeds. All the Spermatophyta are heterosporous; fertilization of the egg cell is either through a
pollen tube emitted by the microspore or (in a few gymnosperms) by spermatozoids. The phrase “flowering plants” is less distinctive than “seed plants, ” since the conifers, grasses, sedges, oaks, etc., do not produce flowers in the popular sense. For this reason the terms Anthrophyta, Phaenogamia, and Panerogamia have been superseded as names of the phylum by Spermatophyta. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. Any plant of the phylum Spermatophyta. -- Sper`ma*to*phyt"ic a. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

‖n. [ NL., fr. Gr. ste`ar, ste`atos, fat + pygh` the buttocks. ] A remarkable accretion of fat upon the buttocks of Africans of certain tribes, especially of Hottentot (Khoikhoi) women. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having fat buttocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

Specimens of the steatopygous Abyssinian breed. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. Gr. &unr_; a block, post + &unr_;, &unr_;, eye + &unr_;, &unr_;, foot. ] (Zool.) Same as Gymnolaemata. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, mouth + -plastic. ] (Med.) Of or pertaining to the operation of forming a mouth where the aperture has been contracted, or in any way deformed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, mouth + -plasty. ] Plastic surgery of the mouth. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Zool.) One of the Stomatopoda. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Stoma, and -pod. ] (Zool.) Same as Stomapoda. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) Of or pertaining to the Stomatopoda. [ 1913 Webster ]