a. (& sb.). [ad. mod.L. cellulāris, f. cellula little cell (dim. of cella); or perh. ad. F. cellulaire: in F. cellule has entirely taken the place of celle, and its derivatives take the place of those of cella both in Fr. and Eng.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by cells or small apartments for single occupants.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. xi. (1865), 308. A poor Carthusian, from strict cellular discipline.
1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVII. 139. The cellular vans employed for the transport of criminals.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 1200. Leave these [gauds] for cellular seclusion.
1872. Daily News, 13 July, 4/7. The cellular system [of convict discipline] as it is established in Belgium.
2. Containing a number of cells, small compartments, or cavities; porous. Cellular pyrites: a variety of Marcasite; Cellular quartz, etc.
1816. Accum, Chem. Tests (1818), 166. Calcareous cellular stones.
1834. Sir C. Bell, Hand, 292. The skull of the giraffe … is cellular and thin and light as a paper case.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ix. (1876), 180. I had … noticed the presence of a few small pebbles of a very cellular basalt.
1868. Dana, Min., 75. Marcasite … in cellular specimens.
3. Phys. Characterized by or consisting of cells (see CELL sb.1, 11–13). As an epithet of vegetable tissues, opposed to vascular. See also B.
Cellular tissue, in Animal Physiology, a synonym of areolar or connective tissue; also formerly called cellular membrane; hence cellular-membranous adj. Cellular pathology: a term introduced by Virchow in 1858; ‘the doctrine of the origin of disease in a perturbation of action, or an alteration of structure, of some or other of the ultimate cells of which the body is composed’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); the study of morbid changes in the cells or ultimate elements of organic tissues.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cellular, or Cellulose, an appellation given by Ruysch, to the second coat of the intestines; in which fat is often found.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 345. A twisted worm, sometimes six feet long, which introduces itself into the skin, and lodges in the cellular membrane.
1799. Southey, Nondescr., iii. My very cellular membrane will be changed, I shall be negrofied.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., Introd. 15. Vegetables which have no flowers … are … Cellular.
1861. N. Syd. Soc. Year-bk., 134. Virchow—Cellular Pathology and Physiological Therapeutics.
1875. J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, ii. 33. Cellular plants, as, for example, mosses and lichens.
1876. Quain, Anat. (ed. 8), II. 53. If we make a cut through the skin and proceed to raise it from the subjacent parts, we observe that it is loosely connected to them by a soft filamentous substance of considerable tenacity and elasticity…. This is the substance known by the names of ‘cellular,’ ‘areolar,’ ‘filamentous,’ ‘connective,’ and ‘reticular’ tissue; it used formerly to be commonly called ‘cellular membrane.’
1876. T. Bryant, Pract. Surgery (ed. 2), I. 33. The deep cellular-membranous syphilitic sore.
b. Of or pertaining to cells.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 320–1. This cellular effusion soon disappears after using the bath for a day or two.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 510/1. A very thin albuminous fluid … often termed the cellular serosity.
B. sb. pl. Cellular plants (in Lat. form Cellulares); those having no distinct stem or leaves, but consisting of a cellular expansion of various kinds, which bears the reproductive organs. Applied to Cryptogams, in reference to their markedly cellular structure; but only the humblest orders of these are entirely cellular.
[1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 1. The presence of flowers, of spiral-vessels, and of cuticular stomata, will at all times distinguish these [Vasculares] from Cellulares, or flowerless plants.]
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 54. The least organised plants are termed cellulars.
