cuticle

English

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cuticle

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle French cuticule, from Latin cuticula (“cuticle, skin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkjuːtɪkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Noun

cuticle (plural cuticles)

1. The outermost layer of the skin of vertebrates; the epidermis.
2. The strip of hardened skin at the base and sides of a fingernail or toenail.
   • 1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, Vintage (2016), page 38:

     By that time she has pushed back his cuticles, cleaned his nails and painted them with clear polish.

3. Dead or cornified epidermis.
4. (zoology, botany) A noncellular protective covering outside the epidermis of many invertebrates and plants.
5. A thin skin formed on the surface of a liquid.

Synonyms

• (zoology, botany) (outer protective covering): cuticula

Derived terms

• cuticleless
• cuticular
• endocuticle
• epicuticle
• exocuticle
• mesocuticle
• procuticle
• subcuticle

Translations

outermost layer of skin of vertebrates — see epidermis

strip of hardened skin at the base of the finger and toenail

Arabic: بُشَيْرَة (ar) f (bušayra) Bulgarian: живец (bg) m (živec) Chinese: Mandarin: 角質層 / 角质层 (zh) (jiǎozhìcéng) Czech: kůžička f Dutch: nagelriem (nl) Esperanto: kutiklo Finnish: kynsivalli, kynsinauha (fi) French: cuticule (fr) f Galician: cutícula f German: Nagelhaut (de) f Irish: cúitineach m Italian: cuticola (it) f Macedonian: жи́вец m (žívec), кути́кула f (kutíkula) Norwegian: Bokmål: neglebånd n, negleband n Nynorsk: nagleband n Portuguese: cutícula (pt) f Russian: кути́кула (ru) f (kutíkula) Scottish Gaelic: cneas m Spanish: cutícula (es) f Swedish: nagelband (sv) n Ukrainian: кути́кула f (kutýkula)

dead or cornified epidermis

Finnish: kuollut iho Scottish Gaelic: cneas m

protective covering outside epidermis

Catalan: cutícula f Finnish: kutikula (fi); pintakelmu (plants) French: cuticule (fr) f German: Cuticula f, Kutikula f Hungarian: kutikula (hu) Indonesian: kutikula (id) Italian: cuticola (it) f Japanese: クチクラ Malay: kutikel Polish: oskórek m, kutykula f Portuguese: cutícula (pt) f Spanish: cutícula (es) f Turkish: kütikula

See also

• nail
• thumbnail
• toenail
• quick