gelatinous

English

Alternative forms

• gelatinose (archaic)

Etymology

From gelatine +‎ -ous; probably modeled on French gélatineux.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʒəˈlæt.ɪn.əs/, (nonstandard) /ˈdʒɛl.ə.tɪn.əs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

gelatinous (comparative more gelatinous, superlative most gelatinous)

1. Jelly-like.
   • 1866, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], 4th edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 216:

     In certain star-fishes, small depressions in the layer of pigment which surrounds the nerve are filled, as described by the author just quoted, with transparent gelatinous matter, and this projects outwardly with a convex surface, like the cornea in the higher animals.

   • 1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume 11, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Pub. Co., →OCLC, pages 159–178 and 287:

     Everyone listened, and everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness.

   • 1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001, part 2, page 165:

     Winston was gelatinous with fatigue. Gelatinous was the right word. It had come into his head spontaneously. His body seemed to have not only the weakness of a jelly, but its translucency.

2. Of or referring to gelatin.

Translations

jelly-like

• Asturian: xelatinosu
• Catalan: gelatinós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 膠狀／胶状 (zh) (jiāozhuàng), 膠質／胶质 (zh) (jiāozhì)

• Finnish: hyytelömäinen
• French: gélatineux (fr)
• Galician: xelatinoso
• Georgian: ჟელატინის (želaṭinis), ჟელატინისებრი (želaṭinisebri), ლაბოვანი (labovani)
• German: gelatineartig, gelatinös
• Italian: gelatinoso
• Portuguese: gelatinoso (pt)
• Russian: студенистый (ru) (studenistyj)
• Slovene: zdrizast
• Spanish: gelatinoso (es)
• Swedish: gelatinartad (sv)

of or referring to gelatin

• Catalan: gelatinós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 動物膠的／动物胶的 (zh) (dòngwùjiāo de)

• Finnish: gelatiininen
• Georgian: ჟელატინისებრი (želaṭinisebri), ჟელატინის (želaṭinis), ლაბრისებრი (labrisebri)
• German: Gelatine- (de)
• Russian: желатиновый (ru) (želatinovyj)
• Slovene: želatinast