3. (Zoöl.) (a) The second and largest of the four parts forming the
upper surface of a thoracic segment of an insect. It is preceded by the
prescutum and followed by the scutellum. See the Illust. under Thorax.
(b) One of the two lower valves of the operculum of a barnacle.
||Scyb"a*la (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. sky`balon dung.] (Med.) Hardened
||masses of feces.
Scye (s), n. Arm scye, a cutter's term for the armhole or part of the
armhole of the waist of a garment. [Cant]
Scyle (sl), v. t. [AS. scylan to withdraw or remove.] To hide; to
secrete; to conceal. [Obs.]
Scyl"la (?), n. A dangerous rock on the Italian coast opposite the
whirpool Charybdis on the coast of Sicily, -- both personified in
classical literature as ravenous monsters. The passage between them was
formerly considered perilous; hence, the saying "Between Scylla and
Charybdis," signifying a great peril on either hand.
||Scyl*læ"a (?), n. [NL. See Scylla.] (Zoöl.) A genus of oceanic
||nudibranchiate mollusks having the small branched gills situated on
||the upper side of four fleshy lateral lobes, and on the median caudal
||crest.
In color and form these mollusks closely imitate the fronds of
sargassum and other floating seaweeds among which they live.
Scyl*la"ri*an (?), n. (Zoöl.) One of a family (Scyllaridæ) of macruran
Crustacea, remarkable for the depressed form of the body, and the
broad, flat antennæ. Also used adjectively.
Scyl"lite (?), n. (Chem.) A white crystalline substance of a sweetish
taste, resembling inosite and metameric with dextrose. It is extracted
from the kidney of the dogfish (of the genus Scyllium), the shark, and
the skate.
Scym"e*tar (?), n. See Scimiter.
||Scy"pha (?), n.; pl. Scyphae (#). [NL.] (Bot.) See Scyphus, 2 (b).
Scy"phi*form (?), a. [L. scyphus a cup + -form.] (Bot.) Cup-shaped.
||Scy*phis"to*ma (?), n.; pl. Scyphistomata (#), Scyphistomæ (#). [NL.,
||fr. Gr. sky`fos a cup + sto`ma the mouth.] (Zoöl.) The young attached
||larva of Discophora in the stage when it resembles a hydroid, or
||actinian.
||Scy`pho*bran"chi*i (?), n. pl. [NL., from Gr. sky`fos a cup +
||bra`gchion a gill.] (Zoöl.) An order of fishes including the
||blennioid and gobioid fishes, and other related families.
||Scy`pho*me*du"sæ (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. sky`fos cup + NL. medusa.]
||(Zoöl.) Same as Acraspeda, or Discophora.
||Scy*phoph"o*ri (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. sky`fos a cup + fe`rein to
||bear.] (Zoöl.) An order of fresh-water fishes inhabiting tropical
||Africa. They have rudimentary electrical organs on each side of the
||tail.
Scy"phus (?), n.; pl. Scyphi (#). [L., a cup, Gr. sky`fos.] 1. (Antiq.)
A kind of large drinking cup, -- used by Greeks and Romans, esp. by
poor folk.
2. (Bot.) (a) The cup of a narcissus, or a similar appendage to the
corolla in other flowers. (b) A cup-shaped stem or podetium in lichens.
Also called scypha. See Illust. of Cladonia pyxidata, under Lichen.
Scythe (s), n. [OE. sithe, AS. sðe, sigðe; akin to Icel. sigðr a
sickle, LG. segd, seged, seed, seid, OHG. segansa sickle, scythe, G.
sense scythe, and to E. saw a cutting instrument. See Saw.] [Written
also sithe and sythe.] 1. An instrument for mowing grass, grain, or the
like, by hand, composed of a long, curving blade, with a sharp edge,
made fast to a long handle, called a snath, which is bent into a form
convenient for use.
The sharp-edged scythe shears up the spiring grass.
Drayton.
Whatever thing The scythe of Time mows down.
Milton.