newt

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several small, slender, often brightly colored salamanders of the European genus Triturus or the North American genera Notophthalmus and Taricha, living chiefly on land but becoming aquatic during the breeding season.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A tailed batrachian; an animal of the genus Triton in a broad sense, as T. cristatus, the great warty or crested newt, or T. (Lissotriton) punctatus, the common smooth newt; an eft; an asker; a triton. They begin life as tadpoles hatched from eggs, but never lose the tail. They are harmless and inoffensive little creatures, from 3 to 6 inches long, living in ponds and ditches, sometimes crawling out of the water in damp places; they live on animal food, as water-insects and their larvæ, worms, tadpoles, etc. The name is extended to any similar batrachian of small size, as one of the Amblystomidæ, Plethodantidæ, Salamandridæ, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. a small lizard-like amphibian in the family Salamandridae that lives in the water as an adult.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of small aquatic salamanders. The common British species are the crested newt (Triton cristatus) and the smooth newt (Lophinus punctatus). In America, Diemictylus viridescens is one of the most abundant species.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small usually bright-colored semiaquatic salamanders of North America and Europe and northern Asia