[ad. L. foliāt-us leaved, f. folium leaf: see -ATE.]
† 1. Beaten out into a thin sheet or foil. Foliate gold = leaf-gold. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 293. Gold Foliate, or any Metall Foliate, cleaueth.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. iv. 79. This attraction have we tryed in straws and paleous bodies, in Needles of Iron equilibrated; Powders of Wood and Iron, in Gold and silver foliate.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, I. 451.
| Beneath a canopy of rich brocade, | |
| On foliate gold his aching head was laid. |
† b. ? Consisting of laminæ. Obs.
1683. Salmon, Doron Med., I. xxvii. 334. Now shall you see the matter to wax all white, the which is called the foliate Earth.
2. Resembling a leaf; leaf-life.
1658. Sir T. Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, ii. 40–1. In the Laureat draughts of sculpture and picture, the leaves and foliate works are commonly thus contrived, which is but in imitation of the Pulvinaria, and ancient pillow-work, observable in Ionick peeces, about columns, temples and altars.
1846. Dana, Zooph., 433. Coalescing into a solid plate, without branchlets above (foliate).
b. Geom. Foliate curve; also foliate quasi-sb.: see quot. 1796.
1715. A. de Moivre, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 330. The Foliate is exactly quadrable, the whole Leaf thereof being but one third of the Square of AB.
1796. Hutton, Math. Dict. (1815), I. 533/1. Foliate, a name given by some to a curve of the 2d order, expressed by the equation x3 + y3 = axy, being one species of defective hyperbolas, with one asymptote, and consisting of two infinite legs crossing each other, forming a kind of leaf.
3. Bot. a. Furnished with leaves.
1677. Coles, Foliate, leaved.
1721–90. Bailey, Foliate, Leaved, or having Leaves, as, a foliate stalk.
1866. Treas. Bot., Foliate. Clothed with leaves.
b. Having (a specified number of) leaflets.
1840. Paxton, Bot. Dict., Foliate; when a leaf is divided into leaflets, it is called 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10-foliate, according to the number of leaflets.
