Definition of "imbricate" [im•bri•cate]

• Having regularly arranged, overlapping edges, as roof tiles or fish scales. (adjective)
• To overlap in a regular pattern. (verb-transitive)
• To be arranged with regular overlapping edges. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "Snarge (the mess left when a bird collides with a plane, I read about how the birds are indentified by said remains); imbricate (some research on humor produced this one -- to overlap like tiles or fish scales) and euglossine (a type of bee that pollinates orchids)."
• "One of the most remarkable characters of the genus _Caecilia_, which it shares with about two-thirds of the known genera of the order, is the presence of thin, cycloid, imbricate scales imbedded in the skin, a character only to be detected by raising the epidermis near the dermal folds, which more or less completely encircle the body."
• "_The spikelets_ are about 1/8 inch, imbricate, a sessile and a stalked one from the top of each joint, greenish or purple."