a. [ad. L. type *cochleāris pertaining to a cochlea, actually occurring only as the neuter noun coc(h)leār or coc(h)leāre a spoon, whence sense 2. Cf. F. cochléaire.]
1. Phys. Pertaining to the cochlea.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 575. The cochlear branch of the acoustic nerve.
1877. Burnet, Ear, 126. The cochlear canal starts at the outer and lower corner of the vestibule.
2. Bot. In cochlear æstivation, a form of imbricated æstivation, in which one petal being larger than the others, and hollowed like a helmet or bowl, covers all the others.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1848), II. 376.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 212. A form of æstivation … to which the name cochlear has been given.
