shagreen

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An untanned leather, often dyed green; originally made from horse skin, today mostly made from the skin of a shark or ray.

   “The following day the treasures of the mysterious tower came pouring in: pictures, statues, gems, shells, china, stuffed beasts and birds, tables, vases, petrifactions, arms, mandarins, &c. &c.; and among them the shagreen skin, with the injunction, "Sell it for any thing—nothing—give it away; only, get rid of it."”

   “On the old lecturn or reading-stand which he used for his heavier tomes, The Testaments of Carnamagos, in its covers of shagreen with hasps of human bone, lay open at the very page which had frightened him so unreasonably with its eldritch intimations.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A rough or spiny surface of an insect's cuticle.

   “If the shagreen dots be carefully observed they will be found to possess an annular arrangement.”

   “The shagreen of the abdominal tergites generally consists of small spinules, singly or in caudally convex arcs.”

verb

1. (transitive)To give a texture resembling shagreen leather.