dormouse

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various small, squirrellike Old World rodents of the family Gliridae.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A rodent of the family Myoxidæ. The dormouse is peculiar among rodents in having no cæcum. The general appearance is squirrel-like, hence the name squirrel-mice sometimes given to these animals; but the structure and general affinities are murine. The dormice are confined to the old world, and are widely distributed in Europe and Asia, with some outlying forms in Africa. Their shape is neat and gracile; they have full eyes, shapely limbs, and a long hairy tail, which in Myoxus proper is bushy and distichous throughout, in Muscardinus bushy but cylindrical, in Eliomys tufted and flattened at the end, and in Graphi urus shorter and like a lead-pencil. There are about 12 species of the 4 genera named. The common dormouse is Muscardinus avellanarius, only about as large as the house-mouse; the fat dormouse or loir (Myoxus glis) and the garden-dormouse or lerot (Eliomys nitela) are both much larger. The dormice hibernate in a lethargic or torpid state, occasionally waking up in mild weather, and availing themselves of a stock of provisions which they have hoarded.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae; also called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by some taxonomists.
2. n. UK Muscardinus avellanarius, the hazel dormouse.
3. n. figuratively A person who sleeps a great deal, or who falls asleep readily (by analogy with the sound hibernation of the dormouse).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A small European rodent of the genus Myoxus, of several species. They live in trees and feed on nuts, acorns, etc.; -- so called because they are usually torpid in winter.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small furry-tailed squirrel-like Old World rodent that becomes torpid in cold weather