retractile

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The cat's claws are of course retractile, as I have just described to you.

From The Wonders of the Jungle, Book Two by Ghosh, Sarath Kumar

The bells or cups are not, as might be fancied from a casual inspection, open like wineglasses at the top, but furnished with a retractile disk or cover, on which the cilia are arranged.

From Marvels of Pond-life A Year's Microscopic Recreations by Slack, Henry J.

That this may be more perfectly accomplished, these arms are studded along their inner surface with rows of sucking discs, in each of which, by means of a retractile piston, a vacuum can be produced.

From Sea Monsters Unmasked and Sea Fables Explained by Lee, H. W. (Henry William)

The larv� have small retractile heads, and feed on low-growing plants, keeping themselves well concealed on the lower leaves close to the ground.

From Butterflies and Moths (British) by Furneaux, William S.

The pseudopods are retractile, the axial filament being absorbed as the filament grows shorter and thicker and disappearing when the pseudopod merges into the ectoplasm, to be reformed at the same time with the pseudopod.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 2 "Hearing" to "Helmond" by Various