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scaly

scaly

15 3.3
A surface with small, flat pieces like fish or reptile skin
  • adjective
  • /ˈskeɪli/
translation icon : escamoso
  • The lizard's scaly skin glimmered in the sunlight as it basked on the warm rock.
  • scaly-foot snail
  • scaly-foot

Make no mistake, my friends, we now face a derpy, scaly menace.

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Examples

  • We widen and see that this watch is held in a green, scaly claw.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • And I got this black one that has sort of this scaly looking print on the front and like leathery details.

  • Whereas when I felt this one on the other eye, it was very scaly, feeling like scaly and dry.

  • And it just seems like I'm such a scaly woman now.

  • A huge, monstrous scaly head come out of the water.

  • As he walked through the forest, Bold reached a large scaly log and began to step over it.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • And the symptoms include patches of skin that are dry, scaly, red, sore and swollen.

  • And worse, this evil head rose thirty feet on a green, scaly neck the approximate thickness of an ancient redwood.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Hands gripped him from behind, scaly hands, clawlike hands, and hair coarse as straw blew across his face.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • She's an enormous beast, with great scaly feet and the most prominent pair of tusks I've ever seen.

Synonyms

scabrous
vsscaly
1 9.9

Rough to the touch with many small bumps or scales

describes scale like surfaces rather than surfaces with raised bumps
squamous
vsscaly
  • Specialized
1 8.6

Covered in small, flat scales like a snake or fish

is a broader term for any surface that resembles or has scales
scaled
vsscaly
4.9

Covered with small overlapping hard plates like fish or armor

is the general descriptor used for such scale like coverings
scaley
vsscaly
  • UK
4.1

Having a body covered with small thin plates like fish or reptiles

is the nontechnical label for surfaces that look like scales
squamosal
vsscaly
  • Specialized
9.9

With small overlapping plates like fish scales

is the everyday term for surfaces that appear or are like scales
reptile-like
vsscaly
5.0

Having dry, bumpy skin like a lizard or snake

refers to surfaces actually covered by or resembling scale structures
lepidote
vsscaly
  • Specialized
9.9

Rough to the touch because it is covered with small scales

is the wider term not limited to plant surfaces with scales
leprose
vsscaly
  • Archaic
9.9

Rough and covered with small scales or powder

refers to any surface resembling scales, not only tactile roughness
scurfy
vsscaly
9.9

A surface that has small dry flakes like dandruff

is a general name for scale like coverings rather than just flakiness

Antonyms

256 1.0

A surface that is even and not rough

Compounds

9.9

A small European fern with leathery leaves covered in dry brown flakes

scaly lentinus
  • Specialized
9.9

A mushroom with a scaly cap, white flesh, and a ring on its stalk that smells like licorice

scaly pholiota
  • Specialized
9.9

A mushroom with a rough cap and gills that turn greenish as it ages

A mushroom with a scaly cap and a stalk on the side that turns almost black on dead trees

An animal with a tail covered with scales

8.5

A mammal with hard scales and a long nose that eats ants and termites

How Scaly

scabrous
1 9.9
scaly
15 3.3
flaky
14 3.2
patchy
11 3.7
smooth
256 1.0

Surface Forms

scaly positive

Morphology

scaly = scale (transparent) = scale + y

Standard adjective formation from the noun 'scale' with '-y' meaning 'having or covered with scales', so the meaning is directly derivable.

Etymology

Scaly comes from the simple word scale, which means 'small plate' or 'flake' like the pieces on a fish or lizard. So something scaly is covered in those little plate-like pieces or rough flakes, and that's why we call fish skin, reptile skin, or dry, flaky skin 'scaly'.