Definition of "cuticle" [cu•ti•cle]

• The outermost layer of the skin of vertebrates; epidermis. (noun)
• The strip of hardened skin at the base and sides of a fingernail or toenail. (noun)
• Dead or cornified epidermis. (noun)
• Zoology The noncellular, hardened or membranous protective covering of many invertebrates, such as the transparent membrane that covers annelids. (noun)
• Botany The layer of cutin covering the epidermis of the aerial parts of plants. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "When I asked my cousin (only family I still have there) why that was, she did some digging and found out that it's because American eggs are washed with some solution that removes the cuticle from the shell, and leaves the eggs really susceptible to bacteria."
• "Hence when two plates of zinc and silver are thus brought in to the vicinity of each other, the plate of air between them, as they are not in adhesive contact, becomes like a charged coated jar; and if these two metallic plates are touched by your dry hands, they do not unite their electricities, as the dry cuticle is not"
• "Insect wing membrane is made of cuticle, which is extracellular secretion."