glume noun. [glu:m] L18.
[Latin gluma hull, husk rel. to glubere to shell, to peel.]
Botany. Any of certain chaffy or membranous scales in the inflorescence of grasses or related plants: (a) (in grasses) either of the two empty bracts subtending the spikelet (more fully empty glume, sterile glume); also (now rare) = LEMMA noun² 2 (more fully flowering glume); (b) (in sedges and other plants of the Cyperaceae) the bract enclosing the flower.

■ glu'maceous adjective resembling or having glumes; characterized by bearing glumes, as the grasses and sedges: E19.

■ 'glumose adjective (now rare) having a glume or husk L18.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲