ranine

adj

1. Of, relating to, or resembling a frog.
2. Relating to, or designating, a swelling under the tongue; also, relating to the region where the swelling occurs, especially to branches of the lingual artery and lingual vein.

noun

1. A frog of the subfamily Raninae.

   “In the Cenozoic, extensive radiation took place in this family in Africa among the endemic phrynobatrachines, arthroleptines, hemisines, and the more wide-ranging ranines.”

   “Two major invasions into Eurasia are postulated: the first involving the Raninae, which gave rise to (a) those ranines that eventually dispersed to the New World and (b) the Platymantinae of Southeast Asia and Australasia, and the second involving the Rhacophorinae.”

   “The ranids consisted of ranines and the stock that gave rise to the mantellines.”

   “The ranines occupy fertilization environments within bodies of water (aquatic) and the African rhacophorids in a foam nest on a tree branch (terrestrial).”

2. (archaic)A ranine artery or vein.

   “The tongue is largely supplied by blood vessels, its arteries being branches of the ranine and labial, and its veins emptying into the great linguals which proceed to the external jugular; […]”

   “The lingual, the ranine, and the lower part of the facial vein, together with the common facial and the anterior and posterior divisions of the temporo-maxillary vein, were full of pus, the external jugular having been removed at the operation.”

   “In the substance of the tongue only two anastomoses take place between the lingual arteries: (a) the ranines communicate at the tip of the tongue; and (b) the dorsales linguæ inosculate around the foramen cæcum.”