To make a vertebrate of; give a backbone to; hence, figuratively, to give firmness or resolution to.
Having vertebræ; characterized by the possession of a spinal column; backboned; in a wider sense, having a notochord, or chorda dorsalis; chordate; specifically, of or pertaining to the Vertebrata. Also vertebrated, and (rarely) vertebral.
Same as vertebral: as, a vertebrate theory of the skull.
In botany, contracted at intervals, like the vertebral column of animals, there being an articulation at each contraction, as in some leaves.
noun.
A vertebrated animal; any member of the Vertebrata, or, more broadly, of the Chordata: as, ascidians are supposed to be vertebrates.