byssus

• ⇰ A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk.
• ⇰ A tuft of long, tough filaments which are formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the <spn>Pinna</spn> and <spn>Mytilus</spn>, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.
• ⇰ An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.
• ⇰ Asbestus.