involute
verbEtymology Borrowed from Latin involutus.
1
To roll or curl inwards.
involute
adjEtymology Borrowed from Latin involutus.
1
Formal Difficult to understand; complicated.
- These vulgar, pleasure-seeking people, so frank and clamorous, were too uninhibited for his shielded and involuted life.1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
- Furthermore, the free anterior margin of the lobule is arched toward the lobe and is often involute[…]1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 7:
3
Biology, Natural sciences Of shells Having a complex pattern of coils in which younger whorls only partly surround older ones.
4
Biology, Natural sciences Turned inward at the margin, like the exterior lip of the shells of species in genus Cypraea.
5
Biology, Natural sciences Rolled inward spirally.
- Derived terms
- involutely