lichen meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

lichen

noun

/ˈlaɪ.kən/ · /ˈlɪtʃ.ən/

Etymology Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.

Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.

The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Lukannon”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 122:
It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual twilight.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:

1 more example

The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places.1915, John Muir, chapter V, in Travels in Alaska:

Figuratively Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.

Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 202:

Derived terms: 108 terms
antilichen, antler lichen, ascolichen, ball lichen, basidolichen, beard lichen, blister lichen, borderline lichen, British soldiers lichen, byssoid lichen, cephalolichen, chlorolichen, cobblestone lichen, comma lichen, coral lichen, corticolous lichen, cracked lichen, crustose lichen, crustose placodioid lichen, cup lichen, cyanolichen, discolichen, dog lichen, dust lichen, earth lichen, edible lichen, endolithic lichen, epiphyllous lichen, equine tropical lichen, filamentous lichen, firedot lichen, foliose lichen, fruticose lichen, gelatinous lichen, globe lichen, glyphis lichen, gold lichen, goldspeck lichen, horsehair lichen, horsetail lichen, Iceland lichen, jelly lichen, jewel lichen, leaf lichen, lecanorine lichen, leprose lichen, letter lichen, lichenaceous, lichenal, lichenase, lichened, lichenic, lichenicolous, lichenification, licheniform, lichenify, lichenin, lichenisation, lichenism, lichenist, lichenivorous, lichenization, lichenize, lichenized, lichenless, lichenlike, lichen moth, lichenographer, lichenographic, lichenographical, lichenographist, lichenography, lichenoid, lichenologist, lichenology, lichenometry, lichenose, lichenous, lichen planus, lichen sclerosus, licheny, lung lichen, macrolichen, manna lichen, map lichen, needle lichen, orange lichen, pin lichen, placodioid lichen, reindeer lichen, rim lichen, saxicolous lichen, script lichen, sea lichen, snow lichen, socket lichen, squamulose lichen, stone lichen, string-of-sausage lichen, stubble lichen, sunburst lichen, terricolous lichen, thrush lichen, tropical lichen, tube lichen, vagrant lichen, Wilson's lichen, wolf lichen
Hyponyms: macrolichen, microlichen

lichen

verb

Etymology Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.

To cover with lichen.

[…] making the rocks assume the mould of age and lichening the trees with damp beauty.1903, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine, volume 21, page 37:

Related terms: algae, fungus, Iceland moss, moss, reindeer moss