vertebrate

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Having a backbone or spinal column.
• adjective Of or characteristic of vertebrates or a vertebrate.
• noun Any of numerous chordate animals of the subphylum Vertebrata, characterized by a segmented spinal column and a distinct well-differentiated head. The vertebrates include the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To make a vertebrate of; give a backbone to; hence, figuratively, to give firmness or resolution to.
• Having vertebræ; characterized by the possession of a spinal column; backboned; in a wider sense, having a notochord, or chorda dorsalis; chordate; specifically, of or pertaining to the Vertebrata. Also vertebrated, and (rarely) vertebral.
• Same as vertebral: as, a vertebrate theory of the skull.
• In botany, contracted at intervals, like the vertebral column of animals, there being an articulation at each contraction, as in some leaves.
• noun A vertebrated animal; any member of the Vertebrata, or, more broadly, of the Chordata: as, ascidians are supposed to be vertebrates.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) One of the Vertebrata.
• adjective (Anat.) Having a backbone, or vertebral column, containing the spinal marrow, as man, quadrupeds, birds, amphibia, and fishes.
• adjective (Bot.) Contracted at intervals, so as to resemble the spine in animals.
• adjective (Zoöl.) Having movable joints resembling vertebræ; -- said of the arms of ophiurans.
• adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the Vertebrata; -- used only in the form vertebrate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Having a backbone.
• noun An animal having a backbone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective having a backbone or spinal column
• noun animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium