proboscis

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“
Faix if it wasn't that her proboscis is a taste longer, I'd swear it was herself At this point Massan stepped forward and took Maximus by the arm Come along, lad; there's too much row here for a comfortable palaver; bring your wife wi' you.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A long flexible snout or trunk, as of an elephant.
  2. noun The slender, tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates, such as insects, worms, and mollusks.
  3. noun A human nose, especially a prominent one.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Hawkmoths, which look a lot like hummingbirds or bumblebees, are common daytime fliers and will be found on tubular flowers (perfect for their incredibly long proboscis, which is the straw-like tube they feed with). —  Museum Blogs
  • The labella gently dab liquids into its proboscis, which then sucks up the liquid.
  • They have no sting with which to defend themselves; no proboscis which is suitable for gathering honey from the flowers, and no baskets on their thighs for holding the bee-bread. —  Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee A Bee Keeper's Manual
  • It was a platform with a seat fixed upon a very high pair of wheels, and supported in the front upon the back of the horse, by means of a kind of proboscis which, forming an arch, reached over the hind-quarters of the horse, and passed through a ring, placed on an upright piece of iron, which worked in a socket fixed in the saddle. —  Evolution, Old ; New Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, as compared with that of Charles Darwin
  • He even uncurled his slender saffron proboscis, and toasted his divinity in the sap of the oak-leaf Illustration: HE SHOWED HER THE BROAD, WHITE RIBBON THAT HE ALSO WORE What made her change her mind at the eleventh tree? —  "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

tusk ·  snout
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin, from Greek proboskis : pro-, in front; see pro-2 + boskein, to feed.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French proboscide = Spanish probóscide = Portuguese proboscis = Italian proboscide, proboscis, from Latin proboscis, from Greek προβοσκίς (-κιδ-). the trunk or proboscis of an elephant, the proboscis of a fly, an arm of a cuttlefish, from πρό, before, + βόσκειν, feed, graze.
 

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/prəˈbɑsɪs/
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