Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various herbivorous marsupials of the family Macropodidae of Australia and adjacent islands, having short forelimbs, large hind limbs adapted for leaping, and a long tapered tail.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large marsupial mammal of Australia, Macropus giganteus; by extension, any herbivorous and saltatorial marsupial of the family Macropodidæ (which see for technical characters). The great kangaroo, the first Australian species of this large family to become known to Europeans, was discovered by Cook in 1770. The male stands 6 or 7 feet high; the female is a third smaller. The hinder parts of the animal enormously preponderate over the fore parts; the thighs and tail are very muscular, the lower leg and the tail very long. The second and third digits are much reduced, the weight of the body falling chiefly on the fourth and fifth. The fore limbs are very small, used chiefly for prehension, and not in locomotion; during the flying leaps the animal makes, said to be from 10 to 20 and even 30 feet in extent, they are closely clasped to the breast. The head and neck are slender, the ears high. The general color is yellowish brown, darker above and paler below. The front teeth are fitted for nipping herbage; the stomach is long and sacculated; and there is a large cæcum. In their whole structure and economy the kangaroos represent ruminants in the Australian, Austro-Malayan, and Papuan regions. They are gregarious, inoffensive, and timid, but when brought to bay prove formidable antagonists, using the claws of the hind feet with great effect. They are killed by being closed in upon and knocked down with clubs, or driven into ambush and shot like deer. There are many species, 23 of the genus Macropus, 6 of Petrogale, and 3 of the genus Onychogalea, in which the tail ends in a kind of nail. They inhabit not only Australia and Tasmania, but New Guinea, New Ireland, the Aru Islands, and other islands. A large numher of smaller species with naked muzzle, called brush-kangaroos, pademelons, whallabees, etc., constitute the subgenus Halmaturus. The rock-kangaroos form the genus Petrogale. Hare-kangaroos or kangaroo-hares belong to the genus Lagorchestes. (See cut under
hare-kangaroo .) A peculiar type of kangaroo, inhabiting New Guinea and Misol, is the genus Dorcopsis. (See cut underDorcopsis .) Kangaroo-rats, potoroos, or bettongs are small animals constituting the subfamily Hypsiprymninæ. - n. A kind of chair.
- n. An early form of ‘safety’ bicycle which had a large wheel in front and a small one in the rear, the forks being connected by a curved backbone, as in the ordinary ‘high’ bicycle, but with the saddle back of the large wheel. It was propelled by treadles connected to cranks on the front axle by connecting-rods. This allowed the weight of the rider to be kept always back of the center of the front wheel.
- n. plural In stock-exchange slang, West Australian mining shares.
- To leap as a kangaroo, either literally or figuratively.
- To hunt the kangaroo.
- To whip with a kangaroo-skin whip-lash.
Wiktionary
- n. A member of a family of large marsupials with strong hind legs for hopping, mainly found in Australia, scientific name macropod.
- n. Canada, attributive A hooded jacket with a front pocket, usually of fleece material, a kangaroo jacket.
- v. To practice kangaroo care on an infant; to hold a premature infant against the skin.
- v. To hunt kangaroo.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of jumping marsupials of the family
Macropodidæ . They inhabit Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands, They have long and strong hind legs and a large tail, while the fore legs are comparatively short and feeble. The giant kangaroo (Macropus major) is the largest species, sometimes becoming twelve or fourteen feet in total length. The tree kangaroos, belonging to the genus Dendrolagus, live in trees; the rock kangaroos, of the genus Petrogale, inhabit rocky situations; and the brush kangaroos, of the genus Halmaturus, inhabit wooded districts. See wallaby.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several herbivorous leaping marsupials of Australia and New Guinea having large powerful hind legs and a long thick tail
Etymologies
- From Guugu Yimidhirr gangurru, recorded by James Cook and others in 1770 at Endeavour River; in English, applied to the whole family of macropods, apparently from not realizing the Guugu Yimidhirr word referred to just one species. (Wiktionary)
- Guugu Yimidhirr (Aboriginal language of northeast Australia) gaŋurru. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“HEMMER: Marion Jones vowing not to answer questions for what she calls a kangaroo court.”
“And, gentlemen, the natural historians tell us that the kangaroo is the only animal which the Lord ever made that cannot put its tail between its legs.”
“Is Obama planning on prosecute them in kangaroo courts?”
“The kangaroo is unique in its design because it utilizes a 2 tone frosted effect, with a lighter “white gold” as the base color, and a darker gold color frosted over top.”
“Plus the kangaroo is such a ubiquitous symbol of Australia that collectors around the globe feel that they truly own a piece of Australia when they buy a gold kangaroo.”
“Kangaroo get some bitches: P marz lmao. .that captain kangaroo bit sold it for me. im there!!!”
Black Dynamite Red Band Movie Trailer 2 (What the What!?!) | /Film
“The kangaroo is a painted stencil, about yay high, on the uphill side of the road.”
hughstimson.org » Blog Archive » The Myth of the Buckworth Kangaroo
“The word kangaroo court comes to mind - Oh, well done Melanie!”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“April 16th, 2008 at 5: 26 am omg da baby kangaroo is so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awwww wish i could pet it it looks soooo innnocent and harmless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Coffee comes in "kangaroo cups" with a pouch or shelf for chocolate.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kangaroo’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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See cut under
A list of words with definitions directing us to "see cut under" (or "see cut at") another definition (with hilarity occasionally ensuing).
Compare compare-cut-under.spider, scorpion, spoonbill, spur, tooth, feather, gnat, beard, gyrate, astragal, jog, countercheck and 92 more...
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Australasian mammals
Australasian mammals, monotremes, anteater, duckbill, echidna, giant anteater, ornithorhynchus, platypus, porcupine, water mole, carnivorous marsu..., banded anteater and 220 more...
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tHe Best Animals Ever
giraffe, elepant, cattle, water buffalo, langur monkey, baboon, lion, antelope, cheetah, tapeworm, kangaroo, bullfrog and 102 more...
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Animals
pig, camel, ant, ape, donkey, badger, bat, beaver, bee, cat, dog, cow and 82 more...
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As many reasons as we can think of to...
in the words of blues clues...
WE GOTTA THINK, THINK, THINK....maori, aboriginie, robbie deans!, anzac's, kiwi, dingo, kangaroo, we are awesome, tuatara, sky tower, sydney opera house, all blacks and 11 more...
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Technical characters
Being a list of words with "technical characters" in their definitions.
skunk, badger, cormorant, kangaroo, diodontoidea, serpent, stork, mole, opossum, crow, pigeon, toucan and 14 more...
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Meats: For All the Carnivores out There
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
Just kidding. Kind of.yak, wood pigeon, wild turkey, wild boar, venison, veal, turtle, turkey, squirrel, squab, snail, rattlesnake and 51 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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librarygoblin's words
crystal, ghost, mist, snow, labyrinth, citadel, tomb, mystery, arcane, conundrum, echo, dynamo and 389 more...
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Stately Animals
Animals and birds of nations and states. Also see Stately Plants
lion, eagle, fennec fox, dragon, blue whale, magnificent friga..., cougar, kangaroo, emu, black eagle, orca whale, flamingo and 233 more...
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uncleosbert's Words
omphalaskepsis, gravid, steatopygian, marmalade, triffid, scurrilous, kith, lilliputian, slunk, snailular, milquetoast, elephantine and 191 more...
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Baby, It's Cold Outside!
Do as your mom says and put on a jacket.
frock coat, doublet, reefer, cutaway, morning coat, tailcoat, dinner jacket, smoking jacket, juste-au-corps, jerkin, basque, spencer and 134 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kangaroo.

michaelt42 Female kangaroos are trivaginate and possess two uteri. Apr 16, 2012
sionnach What's that you said, pilpy? Mar 23, 2009
bilby "In most (Australian) languages b can be substituted for p, d for t and g for k with no difference to the meaning of the word. Some people use b, d and g while others prefer p, t and k; either set of letters is satisfactory. Thus, the name of the language spoken west of Alice Springs is sometimes spelt Pintupi and sometimes Bintubi; and the name of the large black kangaroo in Guugu-Yimidhirr can be written either kang-urru or gang-urr."
- R.M.W. Dixon, 'Australian Languages', 1989. Mar 23, 2009
sionnach On the Quiz 7 list because the two musical pieces were, respectively, the "Swan" and "Kangaroo" from Saint Saens' "Carnival of the Animals" Dec 27, 2008
yarb Ah, de Selby, the savant's savant! Jul 30, 2008
sionnach The influence of this feisty marsupial on world events should not be underestimated. From its invaluable contributions to the early development of that parched, philistine continent it calls home*, to its important role in recent Chinese history**, and the molding of the minds of future leaders of America***, it is clear that we placental mammals could learn much from this scruffy member of the marsupial nobility.
*: "Frontier justice in a nation of convicts : marsupial jurisprudence in van Diemen's Land", deSelby, 1908 (Tasmanian Devil Press)
**: "Rebel 'roos: the true story of the Boxer Rebellion", deSelby, 1948. (Peeking Duck Press)
***: "Captain Kangaroo and the Manchurian Candidate : the true history of the 'placental pogroms' of 2009", work in progress. Jul 30, 2008
qroqqa The name comes from the North Queensland language Guugu Yimidhirr, in which it refers to a particular species of kangaroo. Guugu Yimidhirr was the first Australian language to be recorded at all: Captain Cook took notes in 1770. He wrote: 'The animals which I have before mentioned, called by the Natives Kangooroo or Kanguru'; and Banks wrote: 'The largest quadruped was called by the natives kangooroo'.
It is not of course pronounced exactly like the modern English word; in particular the medial -ng- had no /g/ sound, being as in 'singer', not as in 'finger, kangaroo'. This is part of the evidence that the borrowing was from Guugu Yimidhirr into English, not vice versa. Borrowing does seem to have happened into other languages, because writers in the next few years make a bewilderingly contradictory set of statements. Some of them say the word was unknown to the natives (this is believable: as Portuguese words would be unknown in Norway or Poland), while others say the very same word was used by the natives in impossible places like Tasmania. (There is no known relationship between Tasmanian and mainland languages, for one thing.)
It is dubious whether this has any connexion with the popular belief that 'kangaroo' meant "I don't know" and was given in answer to a question about the animal. Why that word? In early years explorers didn't realize how many different languages there were in Australia, but they would have been instantly stumped by virtually any North Queensland word they tried to use in the Sydney area. It's not just kangaroos that would have had entirely different names. Jul 30, 2008
kewpid Demonstrated nicely in this video. Feb 19, 2008
chained_bear A marsupial mammal remarkable for the great development of the hind-quarters and leaping power. Natives of Australia, Tasmania, Papua, and some neighbouring isles; the larger kinds being commonly known as kangaroos, and the smaller ones as wallabies. The first species known in Europe was the great kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), discovered by Captain Cook in 1770; the male of this is about 6 feet in height when standing erect. (OED online)
He is also a helluva boxer. You do *not* want to get in a fight with a six-foot kangaroo.
Usage:
Tie me kangaroo down, sport,
Tie me kangaroo down.
--Rolf Harris Feb 6, 2007