Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Anatomy.
- a small cavity, sac, or gland.
- one of the small ovarian sacs containing an immature ovum; Graafian follicle.
- Botany. a dry seed vessel, or pod, consisting of a single carpel, splitting at maturity only along the front part of the suture.
noun
- any small sac or cavity in the body having an excretory, secretory, or protective functiona hair follicle
- botany a dry fruit, formed from a single carpel, that splits along one side only to release its seeds: occurs in larkspur and columbine
early 15c., from French follicule or directly from Latin folliculus “little bag,” diminutive of follis “bellows, inflated ball,” from PIE *bhol-n-, suffixed form of root *bhel- (2) “to blow, swell” (see bole).
n.
- A small bodily cavity or sac.
- A crypt or minute cul-de-sac or lacuna, such as the depression in the skin from which the hair emerges.
- An ovarian follicle.
- A spherical mass of cells usually containing a cavity.
- A small, protective sac, gland, or cluster of cells in the body. In mammals, unfertilized eggs develop in follicles located in the ovaries. Hair grows from follicles in the skin.
- A dry, dehiscent fruit that develops from a single carpel, has a single chamber, and splits open along only one seam to release its seeds. The pod of the milkweed and the fruit of the magnolia are follicles.