byssus

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: bys=sus

CIDE DICTIONARY

byssus, n. [L. byssus fine flax, fine linen or cotton, Gr. by`ssos .].

•  A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.  [1913 Webster]
•  Asbestus.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

byssus, n. hist. (pl. byssuses or byssi)
1 hist. a fine textile fibre and fabric of flax.
2 a tuft of tough silky filaments by which some molluscs adhere to rocks etc.

Etymology

ME f. L f. Gk bussos

ROGET THESAURUS

byssus

Roughness

N roughness, tooth, grain, texture, ripple, asperity, rugosity, salebrosity, corrugation, nodosity, arborescence, pilosity, brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet, fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi, lovelock, beaucatcher, curl paper, goatee, papillote, scalp lock, plumage, plumosity, plume, panache, crest, feather, tuft, fringe, toupee, wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down, byssus, moss, bur, fluff, knot (convolution), rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted, rugged, rugose, rugous, knurly, asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn, craggy, cragged, crankling, scraggy, prickly, arborescent, leafy, well-wooded, feathery, plumose, plumigerous, laciniate, laciniform, laciniose, pappose, pileous, pilose, trichogenous, trichoid, tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute, crinose, crinite, bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged, fringed, befringed, setous, setose, setaceous, like quills upon the fretful porcupine, rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear, downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly, lanate, lanated, lanuginous, lanuginose, tomentose, fluffy, against the grain, cabello luengo y corto el seso.