lichen
noun
- symbiotic organism (algae and fungi)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈlaɪ.kən/ / /ˈlɪtʃ.ən/
noun
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
- Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
“The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!”
“It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual twilight.”
- Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.
“Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.”
verb
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
- To cover with lichen.
“[…] making the rocks assume the mould of age and lichening the trees with damp beauty.”