pleomorphicadj.

1886 E. R. Lankester in Nature 4 Mar. 413/2 I gave the name Bacterium rubescens to this pleomorphic, or, as I termed it, ‘Protean’, species.

1913 H. J. Hutchens tr. A. Besson Pract. Bacteriol. xxviii. 447 Organisms of the pasteurella group are..very pleomorphic.

1953 R. W. Fairbrother Text-bk. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) xii. 165 Haemophilus. Gram-negative, non-motile, non-sporing, minute rods, which, however, may be highly pleomorphic.

1968 Jrnl. Pediatrics 73 716/2 The cells remaining were pleomorphic, with hyperchromatic, large, sometimes multiple nuclei.

1987 E. W. Burr Compan. Bird Med. xx. 120/2 The Trypanosomatidae pose a difficult problem, as the species are highly pleiomorphic and few life cycle studies have been conducted.

1993 Brit. Jrnl. Surg. 80 366/1 The tumour was composed of bundles of pleomorphic spindle cells arranged in storiform pattern.

1933 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 113 288 More curious was the tendency to obtain tumours of a pleomorphic character.

1946 Mil. Surgeon 99 573 A new term, ‘teratocarcinoma’, is proposed for the large group of pleomorphic tumours in which both differentiated teratoid structures and histologically malignant elements were present.

1948 R. A. Willis Pathol. Tumours xvii. 321 (heading) Pleomorphic salivary adenomas and adenocarcinomas (so-called ‘mixed tumours’).

1948 R. A. Willis Pathol. Tumours xvii. 322 Some workers..have retained the term ‘mixed’ as appropriately denoting the variety of structure in the growths... I prefer to discard it in favour of the purely descriptive adjective ‘pleomorphic’.

1987 D. J. Weatherall et al. Oxf. Textbk. Med. (ed. 2) I. vi. 159/2 Epithelial tumours of the lung have been most frequent but anaplastic and pleomorphic growths have also been seen.

2003 Ear, Nose & Throat Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 Aug. 623 A long-standing pleomorphic adenoma of the deep lobe of the left parotid gland.