ramify, v.

1. intr. Of trees and plants or their parts: To form branches, to branch out, extend in the form of branches.

1576 NEWTON Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 212 Those Trees and Sprayes that doe not burgen and ramifie. a1735 ARBUTHNOT Aliments iii. 64 When they [asparagus plants] are older, and begin to ramify, they lose this Quality. 1842 E. J. LANCE Cottage Farmer 18 The roots are allowed to ramify and collect additional nourishment.

2. intr. To extend or spread in a number of subdivisions or offshoots analogous to branches; esp. Anat. of veins, nerves, etc.

1578 BANISTER Hist. Man VIII. 109 That [nerve] which runneth inward..ramifieng to that first Muscle. 1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. II. v. (1672) 97 Whether..some [Corals]..were able even in their stony natures to ramifie and send forth branches. 1787 HUNTER in Phil. Trans. LXXVII. 419 The branches of the bronchiæ which ramify into the lungs.1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 223 [Cholera] spread..to Panwell, where it ramified north and south. 1861 MAY Const. Hist. (1863) II. xiv. 428 Dissent had grown and spread and ramified throughout the land. 1888 BRYCE Amer. Commw. I. xxviii. 443 The machinery of the National government ramifies over the whole Union.

3. intr. To break up, divide, into branches or analogous parts.

1541 R. COPLAND Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. Gjb, Yet agaynwarde they ramyfye in to two partyes. 1805 W. SAUNDERS Min. Waters 12 A system of cylindrical vessels generally ramifying into minute branches. 1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 177 Esculent colic may be justly contemplated as ramifying into the three following varieties. 1856 OLMSTED Slave States 93 The road, which for a short distance further was plain enough, soon began to ramify.

4. trans. To cause to shoot out, spread, or extend after the manner of branches. (Somewhat rare in active voice; the passive is freq. in 19th c.)

1565 J. HALL Crt. Vertue 31b, But we O Lorde, that be alyue, Thy prayse wyll spreade and ramifye. 1578 BANISTER Hist. Man v. 78 The braunches..are ramified abroad through the thinne Membran. 1620 T. GRANGER Divine Logike 296 The seede, or roote out of which all the specials following..are as it were procreated, and ramified. 1767 GOOCH Wounds I. 273 The vessels, which are ramefied in, and upon the plicatures of the pia Mater. 1825 MACLAREN Railways 27 Railways..may be ramified over a whole country. 1860 TYNDALL Glac. II. xxiv. 357, I have seen the internal liquefaction ramify itself like sprigs of myrtle.

5. To separate into branches or analogous divisions. Also absol.

1800 JEFFERSON Writ. (1859) IV. 313 Some of these articles are too much for one professor and must therefore be ramified. 1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 543 The variations of the pulse [have] been ramified into so many divisions and sub-divisions. Ibid. II. 105 In dividing them into two distinct sub-species,..he ramifies very unnecessarily.

Hence ramifying vbl. n. and ppl. a. 1682 GREW Anat. Leaves iv. §17 The Distribution of the Threds which the Vessels compose, is not the Ramifying of Greater Pipes into Less. 1822-34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 108 Fanaticism..may..rage with all the ramifying power of an epidemic. 1884 BOWER & SCOTT De Bary's Phaner. 62 Branch-endings of ramifying conical hairs.

1989 Oxford English Dictionary (ed. 2)