BYSSUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Byssus

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noun

Byssus n. (pl. E. byssuses; L. byssi)

A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk. (Written also byss and byssin)

(Zool.) A tuft of long, tough filaments which are formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the Pinna and Mytilus, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.

(Bot.) An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.

Asbestus.

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Etymology of 'Byssus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Byssus" Quotes from Famous Books

... of any of the bivalved molluscs which adhere to rocks, as the Pinna, Mytilus, &c. The silken byssus of the great pinna, or wing-shell, is woven into dresses. In the Chama gigas it will sustain 1000 lbs. Also, the woolly substance found in ...

— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

Words linked to "Byssus" : fiber, fibre