Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Adapted to or specialized for running: cursorial birds; cursorial legs.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Fitted for running: as, the cursorial legs of a dog.
- Having limbs adapted for walking or running, as distinguished from other modes of progression: as, a cursorial isopod; a cursorial orthopteran.
- Habitually progressing by walking or running, as distinguished from hopping, leaping, etc.; gradient; gressorial; ambulatory. Specifically
- Of or pertaining to the Cursoria, Cursores, or Cursitores.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Adapted to running or walking, and not to prehension. See
Illust. of aves. - adj. Of or pertaining to the Cursores.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of limbs and feet) adapted for running
Etymologies
- From Late Latin cursōrius, of running; see cursory. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It browses on ground cacti, is reported to not drink, and is superior in cursorial ability compared to other living species.”
“So I wonder if the reptilean ancestors of the birds had a cursorial or an arboreal approach to early flight ….”
“When they came for the tool using cursorial primates, no species cared.”
“Legs were long, cursorial, with five tarsal segments.”
“Strongly adapted for life in open country, reindeer are the most cursorial of living deer.”
“See the next post (Goodbye my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin).”
“It is absolutely wrong to argue – as some workers have – that the ‘trees down’ theory is at odds with the very robust and well supported body of evidence showing that birds are theropod dinosaurs, given that basal birds, and the theropods closest to birds, were apparently small-bodied proficient tree climbers, and not big cursorial Deinonychus-like predators as some would have it.”
“These slender legs suggest that BAR 3877-11 was a fast-moving, cursorial predator, and Chiappe & Bertelli state that ‘the long-established correlation between their corpulence and reduced cursorial agility needs to be re-evaluated’.”
“Darren Naish: Tetrapod Zoology: Goodbye, my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin”
“Their terrestrial, cursorial adaptations would then be late-evolved novelties, and not primitive features inherited from earlier neornithines.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cursorial’.
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
czardas, cytometer, cytology, cytheromania, cystoscope, cystolith, cyrenaic, cypseline, cyprinoid, cyphonism, cynophobia, cytogenesis and 1298 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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chairmanK's list
eristic, eidetic, reticular, legshow, phytomorphic, ophidian, autumnal, frisson, rhizomatic, pulchritude, lubricious, veridical and 110 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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Lachesis's Words
senage, missary, mendicancy, chantry, obit, mendicity, eccentricity, skew, runout, jerk, backlash, azimuth and 16 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cursorial.
jmjarmstrong JM cast a cursory glance at his cursorial accessories and runs a mile! Aug 17, 2009