(uncountable, by extension) The collection or mass of such outgrowths, filaments, or fibers growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

And smiling as a Master smiles at one / That is not of his school, nor any school / But that where blind and naked Ignorance / Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, / On all things all day long ; he answer’d her.

I acknowledge myself for a reprobate, a villain, a traitor to the king.

A woman may have every quality or attribute of marriageableness who menstruates irregularly, or rarely, or even who has never menstruated at all.