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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of several wildcats of the genus Lynx, especially L. canadensis of northern North America or L. lynx of Eurasia, having soft thick fur, a black-tipped short tail, and tufted ears.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A wild cat with a short tail, penciled ears, and 28 teeth, belonging to the family Felidæ and genus Lynx, such as the caracal, the loup-cervier, and others. There are a number of species, inhabiting Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. They are of moderate size among Felidæ, but considerably larger than any house-cat, with a short body, a very short tail, large and long limbs, usually bearded cheeks and tufted ears, and spotted, marbled, or clouded coloration. Some have been known from time immemorial, and famed for their supposed sharp-sightedness, which probably is no greater than that of other cats. The common European lynx is L. lynx; L. cervaria, L. pardina, L. isabellina, etc., are other Old World species or varieties. The Persian lynx is the caracal, L. caracal. (See cut under caracal.) The common wildcat of North America is the bay lynx, L. rufus, which runs into several varieties. The Canada lynx, L. canadensis, is a larger, much more robust and shaggy wildcat, resembling the lynx of northern Europe or Siberia; the general complexion is gray or hoary, with clouded or obsolete spottings.
  2. n. [capitalized] A genus of Felidæ lacking the front upper premolar of the true cats; the lynxes. The dental formula is: 3 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, and 1 molar in each upper and lower half-jaw—in all, 28 teeth, instead of 30 as in Felis.
  3. n. [capitalized] A small northern constellation introduced by Hevelius in 1690, the name being chosen because the sharp-sightedness of a lynx is required to distinguish any of its stars. It is placed between the Great Bear and Auriga. north of the Twins. Its ten brightest stars are of the fifth magnitude.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any of several medium-sized wild cats, mostly of the genus Lynx.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Any one of several species of feline animals of the genus Felis, and subgenus Lynx. They have a short tail, and usually a pencil of hair on the tip of the ears.
  2. n. One of the northern constellations.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a text browser
  2. n. short-tailed wildcats with usually tufted ears; valued for their fur

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Latin, from Greek lunx; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “The European lynx (_felis lynx_), and the wild cat, both skulk through the Pyrenean forests; the former now only rarely seen.”

    Bruin The Grand Bear Hunt

  • “The bay lynx also -- or wild cat, as it is called (_lynx rufus_) -- and now and then, but more rarely, the cougar (_felis concolor_), give the hounds a run before taking to the tree.”

    Bruin The Grand Bear Hunt

  • “It was that species known as the "bay lynx" (_lynx rufus_), commonly called in America the "wild cat," and sometimes the”

    The Boy Hunters

  • “It has higher than 355 fps and a nice let off rate i think it lets off to about 80 percent where as my martin lynx (20 year old bow, but still a nice bow) lets off about 50 percent but if I were you ide take the lights out”

    i need a new bow...i've been looking at martin bows cause i like the looks of them also the fred bear lights out or the 2 also i

  • “The lynx is particularly interesting as the case was pretty much kept quiet until 2001.”

    Archive 2006-02-01

  • “Those blessed battlements (which had been of so much help to him ever since he had dashed from the wall across the grounds) were, now that he came to think of it, one of the recognized symbols in art of Sphigx, the lion-goddess of war; and Lion had been the name of Mucor's horned cat-of the animal she called her lynx, which had not harmed him.”

    Nightside The Long Sun

  • “Even in the wild state the lynx is short-lived, and is said rarely to reach the age of fifteen years.”

    Harper's Young People, January 13, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly

  • “I think that most of us would rather be called lynx-eyed than gluttonous, and certainly a lynx is a much handsomer beast than a glutton.”

    Peeps at Many Lands: Norway

  • “The Mediterranean monk-seal, the Barbary macaque and the Iberian lynx, which is Critically Endangered, are among the region's imperiled species.”

    The Huffington Post: Allen Hershkowitz: Cork: A Model of Sustainable Business

  • “So that such an idea, though it hath the peculiar name leopard, is not distinguishable from those designed by the names lynx or panther, and may as well come under the name lynx as leopard.”

    An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘lynx’.

Comments

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  • marky Cool word, cool spelling. Thx mollusque! Dec 6, 2009

  • reesetee Right. On the lynx. Nov 3, 2009

  • bilby :-) Betcha they sneak out to play golf anyway. Nov 3, 2009

  • reesetee Put them in a chain lynx to keep them together. Nov 3, 2009

  • bilby These things always go missing. What to do? Nov 3, 2009

  • asativum Does that make me a lynx? I browse text. Sep 8, 2009

  • vanishedone I suppose it's understandable that WeirdNet's priorities lie with software. Sep 8, 2009

  • seanahan Also a terminal web browser. Oct 24, 2007

‘lynx’ has been looked up 2046 times, loved by 1 person, added to 28 lists, commented on 8 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.