[ad. L. tunicāt-us, pa. pple. of tunicāre: see next.
A. adj. Having or enclosed in a tunic or covering; spec. Bot. having or consisting of a series of concentric layers, as a bulb; Entom. sheathed in or issuing from one another, as the joints of antennæ; Zool. having a tunic or mantle; belonging to the Tunicata.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., III. ix. (1765), 195. A tunicate Bulb, when it consists of many Tunics or Coats.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., I. 237. Tunicate bulbs … may be increased by cutting off the upper part of the bulb horizontally.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlvi. 323. Tunicate Knob (Capitulum tunicatum). When the laminæ, at least on one side, appear to inosculate or to be imbedded in each other.
1847. Nat. Encycl., I. 752. It embraces … the conchiferous and tunicate mollusks.
1875. Zoologist, X. 4313. Sponges, Anemones, and Tunicate Mollusca.
B. sb. One of a class of marine animals, formerly regarded as mollusks, but now classified as a degenerate branch of Chordata, comprising the ascidians and allied forms, characterized by a pouch-like body enclosed in a tough leathery integument, with a single or double aperture through which the water enters and leaves the pharynx.
1848. Smart, Suppl, Tunicates, or Tunicaries, an order of acephalous mollusks having a soft outer covering or mantle; otherwise called Ascidians.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 177. The Tunicates, a class of creatures with a fleshy centre and tough leathery skin.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., x. 6. All the fixed Tunicates present two, more or less closely approximated, apertures.
1889. Geddes & Thomson, Evol. Sex, v. § 2. Among the sea-squirts or tunicates, the reproductive organs are frequently ductless.
