Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See suricate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The African penciled ichneumon, Cynictis penicillata. See cut under Cynictis.
- n. The African suricate or zenick, Suricata tetradactyla.
Wiktionary
- n. Suricata suricatta, a small carnivorous mammal of the mongoose family, from the Kalahari Desert, known for its habit of standing on its hind legs.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A South African carnivore (Suricata suricata, formerly Cynictis penicillata), allied to the ichneumons, having a lemurlike face and only four toes; called also
yellow mongoose andsuricate .
WordNet 3.0
- n. a mongoose-like viverrine of South Africa having a face like a lemur and only four toes
Etymologies
- From Afrikaans meerkat, transferrative use of Dutch meerkat ("guenon (monkey)"). Compare English mercat. (Wiktionary)
- Afrikaans, from Middle Dutch meercatte, monkey : meer, sea (because monkeys came from overseas); see mori- in Indo-European roots + catte, cat (from Germanic *kattuz). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Which of these details from the poem best suggest that the meerkat is a good sentry”
“The meerkat is a member of the mongoose family and is native to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa.”
“Because I swear they took mine from 10 years ago and put it on that "meerkat" cake!”
“On a keyboard, it's very unlikely that you'd mistype "meerkat" for "market".”
“For those in the dark about Strictly, the series always begins with Bruce Forsyth a tap-dancing octogenarian boasting a hairpiece made of finest skinned meerkat lining up the chunky, wobbly celebs and the hard bum-cheeked professional dancers, and then pairing them up.”
“When it comes to actually sitting down to use the website, I'll probably get it mixed up with the meerkat one, or the one with the phone on wheels, you think.”
“Jesse Neider for The Wall Street Students on a field trip in Norwalk, Conn., enjoy the new meerkat exhibit at the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium.”
“Who's going to be Jaggers I wonder, the "simples" meerkat?”
The Guardian: TV review: Great Expectations; Fast Freddie, The Widow and Me
“J.D. longed to take the meerkat out of the sample case.”
“At the top, he poked his head up like a meerkat and said: "that was fun!" which would be a good epitaph for anyone's life.”
The Guardian: Simon Hoggart's week: Keeping ahead of the rhinos
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘meerkat’.
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the (chained) unbearable cuteness of ...
You know what I'm talking about. Look for the images...
tapir, pangolin, pika, chunky baby chow ..., roundbelly cowfish, tree octopus, turtlenecked stra..., furze-pig, otter, bilby, wallaby, meerkat and 43 more...
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dandy's list
favourite words
cattywampus, wibble, fenagle, whisker, sneeze, wisteria, honeysuckle, clove, perihelion, glimmer, twilight, dusk and 264 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 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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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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merfee's Words
supple, dichotomy, relish, rhapsody, pneumonoultramicr..., embrace, ishmael, ebullient, recalcitrant, elegy, char, lugubrious and 522 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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wordn't-you-just-know-it
autopolyploid, stimthought, vandanbladderstiddle, word's eye view, ménagerie à trois, technonotice, bluebell, slanticular, ante-jentacular, splunge, turkish room, uxorial and 770 more...
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jerin's Words
ululating, puddle, whorl, huzzah, maharaja, mostaccioli, elizabethan, cat, felicitous, dystopian, larynx, pop and 35 more...
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Animal Crackers
camel, dromedary, cabbit, doglet, wren, lynx, ermine, capybara, magpie, mallard, heron, loach and 33 more...
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zoology
animals of interest
sloth, kakapo, kaka, hoatzin, numbat, wombat, hyena, wallaby, emu, morepork, jackdaw, magpie and 73 more...
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I like : M
mage, magisterium, magnificat, magus, mandalay, mandible, manifesto, mars, matryoshka, maying, maypole, megafauna and 34 more...
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Dutchly things
Words having some sort of Dutch origin, probably boring to everyone but me — I'm currently browsing 2,422 entries having "Dutch" in their definitions/etymologies, the best of which should fin...
mynheerify, mynheer, advocaat, dutch bargain, blauwbok, butter-box, quardeel, clinquant, closh, coot, dodkin, dorp and 85 more...
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4Q2009
ya es hora. hagas..., muckender, runagate, sleeping policeman, slot walking, silver mining, escarpment, gabion, isostasy, permeable groin, riprap, tombolo and 6 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for meerkat.
bilby When the meerkat is asking, foxhopper, it is time for you to go. Nov 28, 2009
sionnach "when the bread is rising and the ball is flying and the meerkat is asking "
What could this Vexample possibly mean?
Nov 27, 2009
bilby Haha! Mar 4, 2009
wordwench Viverrine?
Sounds like a sassy cocktail waitress fond of coral lipstick and beehives. Mar 4, 2009
chained_bear Image. Aug 8, 2008