a. [f. mod.L. acinēta (f. Gr. ἀκίνητος motionless) + -FORM.] Having the form of Acinetae, a genus of parasitical infusorial animalcules, with spherical bodies furnished with radiating trumpet-shaped suckers, which are not in constant motion like the cilia or flagella of other infusoria.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. An., ii. 108. Balbiani figures all the stages by which the acinetiform embryo becomes a Paramœcium.
1878. Macalister, Invertebr., 28. Other minute forms, called Acinetae, are small stalked masses whose surface is studded with radiating, retractile tubular suckers, through which they suck the juices of their prey.
