turtle

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"Well, you have indeed a prize, for the turtle will be a pleasant addition to our bill of fare When the girls went to their hut, we examined the water-turtle, which Timbo and Jack at once prepared for cooking.

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Definitions (31)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun Any of various aquatic or terrestrial reptiles of the order Testudines (or Chelonia), having horny toothless jaws and a bony or leathery shell into which the head, limbs, and tail can be withdrawn in most species.
  2. noun Chiefly British A sea turtle.
  3. intransitive verb To hunt for turtles, especially as an occupation.
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Examples (50)

  • The best example of quality of life is the turtle, because the turtle is an example of living and working together. —  Jaime Lerner sings of the city
  • She was glad, for once, to be small, to have left the earlier environment of six-foot women wearing strappy sundresses for a world where she, the men, and the turtle were all squat, solid, and covered. —  GUDMagazineIssue1::Autumn2007
  • The green sea turtle is actually rather reddish in color (photo Seaside Aquarium) (Seaside, Oregon) - While it was raining cats and dogs in the Portland and inland areas, it was apparently raining sea creatures on the north Oregon coast. —  Oregon Coast Travel, Tourism, Science, Entertainment News - Breaking News from the Oregon Coast
  • World Wide Fund for Nature official Penina Solomona said the death of the turtle was an unnecessary waste. —  Fiji Times Online - Local News
  • While investigating, the duo find that the Abenobashi district is constructed as a cross with a different animal guarding each pole - a turtle was at Sasshi's family's house, a dragon was at the pet store, a tiger, and a bird at Ayumi's family restaurant, the last one remaining. —  Anime News Network
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Words tagged turtle

meiolania · leatherback · pleurodira · trionyx · trionychidae · dermoschelys · dermochelys · chisternon · chelytherium · proganochelys · baena

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This word has been looked up 161 times.

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Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Perhaps from French tortue, from Old French, from Medieval Latin *tortūca, perhaps alteration (influenced by Latin tortus, twisted, from the shape of its legs) of Vulgar Latin *tartarūca, feminine of *tartarūcus, of Tartarus, from Late Latin tartarūchus, from Late Greek tartaroukhos, occupying Tartarus : Tartaros, Tartarus + ekhein, to hold; see eunuch.
  2. Middle English, from Old English, from Latin turtur, probably of imitative origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English turtle, tortle, turtel, turtul, also tortor (also turtre, from Old French), from Anglo-Saxon turtle = German turtel(taube) = Old French turtre, French tourtre (also diminutive tourtereau, tourterelle) = Provencal tortre = Spanish tórtora, tórtola = Italian tortora, tortola, from Latin turtur, a turtle; a reduplicated form, prob. imitative of the cooing of a dove.
  2. Formerly also tortle; prob. a corruption of tortoise, or an accommodation form, first used by English sailors, of the Spanish tortuga or Portuguese tartaruga, a tortoise: see tortoise. In either case the alteration appears to have been assisted by a whimsical association with turtle. The application to the smaller land-tortoises seems to be later.
  3. from turtle, n.
 

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/ˈtərtl/
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