celled

1. 1
   adjective

   Containing cells; consisting of cellular units.

   Botanists described the pith as loosely celled, with large gaps between the cells.

   The honeycomb-like, celled interior of the bone keeps it light yet strong.

   Similarcellular, honeycombed

   Note

   It is built the way bearded and walled are built: cell plus the -ed that means "having," not the -ed of a past tense. Adverbs of arrangement can shade it, as in loosely celled or closely celled, but it takes no degrees. One thing is not more celled than another; it either has cells or it does not.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Containing a particular number or form of cells, named by a preceding word.

   Botanists call the ovary three-celled when an inner partition divides it into three chambers.

   The young anther is four-celled, each pocket packed with developing pollen.

   Note

   Here celled is almost never seen alone. It is the second half of a compound, and the first half supplies the count or the shape: three-celled, four-celled, many-celled. The compound is hyphenated, and it classifies rather than grades, so it does not take more or very. Without that first element, the word falls back to the plain "made of cells" meaning.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of cell.

   The warden celled the suspects in separate wings to keep them from talking.

   Each prisoner was celled according to the severity of the offense.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is transitive: to cell someone is to shut them in a cell. Celled serves as both the simple past (the warden celled them) and the participle after have or be (they were celled apart). It needs an object or a passive. Out of context it can be misread as the adjective "made of cells", which shares the spelling but not the meaning.

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