engrailed

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   heraldry: edged with a series of small inward-curving semicircles whose points face outward

   Tom described a chief engrailed across the upper part of the imaginary shield.

2. 2
   noun

   a gray European geometrid moth, Ectropis crepuscularia

   An engrailed rested against the bark, nearly invisible among the mottled shadows.

The heraldic adjective is the past participle of engrail, from Anglo-French forms meaning to notch or make granular. Its curved indentations resemble a row of small scallops. The moth name refers to the wavy, indented-looking lines on its wings.

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