Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small raccoonlike mammal (Bassariscus astutus) of the order Carnivora, inhabiting southwestern North America and having grayish or brownish fur and a black-banded tail.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A ring-tailed bird of prey: especially, the female or young male harrier, Circus cyaneus.
- noun A small quadrilateral sail, set on a small mast on a ship's taffrail; also, a studdingsail set upon the gaff of a fore-and-aft sail. Also called
ringsail .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A bird having a distinct band of color across the tail, as the hen harrier.
- noun (Naut.) A light sail set abaft and beyong the leech of a boom-and-gaff sail; -- called also
ringsail . - noun (Naut.) a spar which is rigged on a boom for setting a ringtail.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
ring-tailed animal, notably: - noun nautical A
ringsail .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun North American raccoon
- noun an immature golden eagle
- noun monkey of Central America and South America having thick hair on the head that resembles a monk's cowl
- noun raccoon-like omnivorous mammal of Mexico and the southwestern United States having a long bushy tail with black and white rings
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The sails along the centre line of the ship are the fore-and-aft sails; these are the triangular jibs, staysails and trysails, and the trapezoidal spanker we have already mentioned, which sometimes has a gaff topsail over it and a "ringtail" behind it, as shown in our figure.
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It consisted of an unclean and vicious-looking man in tramp's clothing, grinding an offensive hand-organ and domineering over a poor little terrorized "ringtail" monkey.
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals A Book of Personal Observations
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Actually, I'm wondering if it wasn't a ringtail, native to California.
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Actually, I'm wondering if it wasn't a ringtail, native to California.
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Recent media reports of the extinction of the lemuroid ringtail possum were "confused," the species is still around.
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Recent media reports of the extinction of the lemuroid ringtail possum were "confused," the species is still around.
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His size made him prominent among the sword - and ax-armed ringtail cats and raccoons who comprised the majority of the gang.
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A ringtail and the bear grabbed him under the arms and hustled him away toward the densest cluster of trees while the rest of the gang scattered in every direction.
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The bandicoot and ringtail rushed out to inform their companions of what had transpired within.
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The ringtail and raccoon exchanged a distinctly hesitant look before following.
chained_bear commented on the word ringtail
Also means some terribly nautical thing. See usage note on passaree.
February 24, 2008