Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various rodents of the genus Microtus and related genera, resembling rats or mice but having a shorter tail and limbs and a heavier body.
- n. Games The winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand, as of bridge; a grand slam.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In card-playing, a winning of all the tricks played in one deal.
- In card-playing, to win all the tricks played in one deal.
- n. A shorttailed field-mouse or meadow-mouse; a campagnol or arvicoline; any member of the genus Arvicola in a broad sense. All the Arvicolinæ are voles, though some of them, as the lemming and muskrat, are usually called by other names. They are mostly terrestrial, tending to be aquatic, abound in the sphagnous swamps and low moist ground of nearly all parts of the northern hemisphere, and are on the whole among the most mischievous of mammals. The common vole, meadowmouse, or short-tailed field-mouse of Europe is A. agrestis. The water-vole or water-rat is a larger species, A. amphibius, almost as aquatic as a muskrat. Some voles are widely distributed, among them one common to the northerly parts of both hemispheres, the red - backed vole, Erotomys rutilus. The commonest representatives in the United States are Arvicola riparius, A. austerus, and A. pinetorum. A very large species of British America is A. xanthognatha. The name vole is purely British, being seldom heard in the United States, or used in books treating of the American species, which are called
field-mice and meadow-mice. See also cuts under Arvicola, Evotomys.Synaptomys, and waterrat.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the family Cricetidae.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A deal at cards that draws all the tricks.
- v. To win all the tricks by a vole.
- n. Any one of numerous species of micelike rodents belonging to Arvicola and allied genera of the subfamily
Arvicolinæ . They have a thick head, short ears, and a short hairy tail.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout short-tailed body and inconspicuous ears and inhabiting fields or meadows
Etymologies
- Short for obsolete volemouse, perhaps from Norwegian *vollmus : Old Norse völlr, field + Old Norse mūs, mouse.French, probably from voler, to fly, from Old French, from Latin volāre, to fly.
Examples
“We'd have been to him what a very slow and stupid meadow vole is to a hawk.”
“Another ‘100 years’ vole is the highly distinctive Balkan snow vole or Martino’s snow vole Dinaromys bogdanovi (Martino, 1922), originally named as a species of Microtus but awarded its own genus in 1955.”
The first new European mammal in 100 years? You must be joking
“Seven-year-olds Gracie Stahura and Sophia Husack lean over their prize - the tiny skeletal remains of a tiny rodent called a vole.”
Voice of America: Volunteers Keep Hands-On Science Alive in US Classrooms
“If your mum thought it a rat, I think the vole is the smaller of the two.”
“This vole, which is described and figured by Milne-Edwards, is supposed to have been found in Afghanistan from a specimen in”
“The vole, which is not a rat, is a goodly sight, and the smooth round dormouse (or sleep-mouse, as the children call it) is a favourite gift imprisoned in an old tea-pot.”
“A vole is a single-bite snack to a coyote, he had the opportunity to eat him several times during this encounter but didn't.”
“Coweliskee is 150 yards wide, is deep and from indian Information navigable a very considerable distance for canoes. it discharges itself into the Columbia about three miles above a remarkable high rocky vole which is situated on the N. side of the river by which it is washed on the South side and is seperated from the Nothern hills of the river by”
“These were supposed to be announced at midnight, but a nice underground animal that rhymes with "vole" gave us the heads-up on both bundles.”
“The Moorhouses sell old-fashioned sweets from jars, webcams and solar mole and vole repellers, but not enough.”
The Guardian: East Coker, TS Eliot's placid village, resists threat of housing invasion
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vole’.
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animals (1 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 1 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious) are welcome!You can ...
dog, cat, bear, bee, ass, ape, horse, squid, bug, hare, hawk, pig and 137 more...
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
Prolagus On the internet, nobody knows... Apr 16, 2009
rolig Not (necessarily) to be confused with love. Unless, of course, you happen to be a vole. Apr 16, 2009