Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A squirrellike rodent (Chinchilla laniger) native to the mountains of South America and widely raised in captivity for its soft, pale gray fur.
- n. The fur of this animal.
- n. A thick twilled cloth of wool and cotton used for overcoats.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small South American rodent quadruped of the genus Chinchilla, especially C. lanigera; a pika-squirrel. The common chinchilla is 9 or 10 inches long, with large rounded ears, long hind legs, 5 toes on the fore feet, a long bushy tail, and beautifully fine pearly-gray pelage, in great repute in furriery.
- n. Some related animal of the family Chinchillidæ: as, Cuvier's chinchilla (Lagidium cuvieri).
- n. The typical genus of the family Chinchillidæ: synonymous with Eriomys.
- n. The fur of these animals, which is used for tippets, muffs, linings to cloaks, pelisses, etc.
- n. A thick heavy cloth for women's winter cloaks, with a long napped surface rolled into little tufts, in imitation of chinchilla fur.
Wiktionary
- n. A small, nocturnal rodent of the genus Chinchilla, native to the Andes, prized for its very soft fur and also often kept as a pet.
- n. uncountable The fur of a chinchilla used for clothing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A small rodent (Chinchilla lanigera), of the size of a large squirrel, remarkable for its fine fur, which is very soft and of a pearly gray color. It is a native of Peru and Chili.
- n. The fur of the chinchilla.
- n. A heavy, long-napped, tufted woolen cloth.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a thick twilled fabric of wool and cotton
- n. the expensive silvery grey fur of the chinchilla
- n. small rodent with soft pearly grey fur; native to the Andes but bred in captivity for fur
Etymologies
- Spanish, probably of Aymara origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word chinchilla would have occurred irresistibly to this observer from behind; he might also, if he were the father of a family, have had a fleeting vision of many autographed stubs in a check book.”
“(Mariette’s last name has been turned invisible to protect the identity of the chinchilla that lives with her, as that chinchilla is a secret agent in the Dominican Republic Secret Engagement Xyloforce.) “You do know Mariette!””
“First thing I knew, I was dreaming you and I were being married, and you had brass buttons all over you, and I had the cloak all right, but it was a wedding-dress, and the chinchilla was a wormy sort of orange blossoms, and -- and I waked when the handle of the door turned and the”
“First thing I knew, I was dreaming you and I were being married, and you had brass buttons all over you, and I had the cloak all right, but it was a wedding-dress, and the chinchilla was a wormy sort of orange blossoms, and -- and I waked when the handle of the door turned and the Bishop got in.”
“The chinchilla, which is the typical form of the third family, is known to all, especially ladies, from its delicate soft fur.”
“The chinchilla is a much more beautiful creature than the viscacha, and is a better-known animal, its soft and beautifully-marbled fur being an article of fashionable wear in the cities of Europe.”
“Its unusual blonde to near white colouring is the result of a recessive gene, known as chinchilla or colour inhibitor.”
“The chinchilla was a showstopper — and “a massive mistake,” Lucas writes.”
“There are pygmy goats, minks, chinchilla, parrots, squirrels, all tended by Colleen and an army of volunteers.”
The Washington Post: Can a Howard woman keep a bunch of monkeys in her house?
“Adorable animals being adorable interlude: A chinchilla hangs out in a bowl full of dust.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chinchilla’.
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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AGRI - animal husbandry
Terms used in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy referring to policy issues in the animal husbandry sector.
bovine animals, beef labelling, animal husbandry, animal keeper, ear tag, electric fence, kid meat, wean off, battery, beekeeping, laying hen, pig meat and 140 more...
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Animals with orange teeth
Mostly... rodentia... of course. Thinking of them in this way adds a comforting layer of abstraction.
nutria, beaver, rat, porcupine, shrew, muskrat, chinchilla, hamster, coypu, mouse, Golden Cowrie, Bengal tigers who... and 2 more...
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Furriery
Anything to do with the fur trade.
furriery, badger, trap, trapper, beaver, polecat, fitch, fitchew, mink, chinchilla, rabbit, fur and 47 more...
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Imagical: Words You Should Be Falling...
Come on, we need a counterbalance...
This has the potential to be the fluffiest list on Wordie.nebula, piglet squid, chinchilla, steering winds, the two towels, haboob, duckling, paradise, rainbow, steampunk, peacock, cthulhu and 11 more...
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Favorite Words
symbologist, articulate, sushi, chinchilla, flagrant, cosmic, perforate, alacrity, gooseflesh, xenophobic, bamboozle, squirrel and 90 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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Browning words of cotton - often stic...
words that meander or have a partial dimension:
words that "catch on": peano curves: fractalitescotton, clue, filament, filaria, filum, filovirus, clod, cloud, peano curve, alveoli, nuance, noil and 122 more...
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gcherches's Words
serendipity, roadrunner, inner child, coagulant, esquire, vicissitude, idiot savant, mitigation, affirmation, affirmative, diatribe, affirmative action and 185 more...
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Favorite Tangible Object Words
Trimming the "Chained Bear's Favorites" list so I don't crash people's computers... like my own...
castanets, whaup, budgie, wallabies, ring-wraith, hobbit, chinchilla, guano, merganser, phalarope, phalarope, curlew and 138 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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fliti's Words
panache, mushaboom, aubergine, serpentine, glimpse, schadenfreude, syzygy, plethora, zeitgeist, defenestrate, callipygian, ubiquitous and 239 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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Fabrics
Woven, knit and tatted fabrics. Other kinds of cloth, such as tapa and chamois are not included.
shikii, shantung, cotton, linen, tweed, wool, velour, velvet, velveteen, gabardine, chenille, silk and 550 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chinchilla.

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