Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various marsupials of the genus Wallabia and related genera, of Australia and adjacent islands, related to the kangaroos but generally smaller and often having a colorful coat.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A general native name of the smaller kangaroos of Australia, especially those of the genera Halmaturus and Petrogale; a rock-kangaroo.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of kangaroos belonging to the genus Halmaturus, native of Australia and Tasmania, especially the smaller species, as the brush kangaroo (Halmaturus Bennettii) and the pademelon (Halmaturus thetidis). The wallabies chiefly inhabit the wooded district and bushy plains.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various small or medium-sized kangaroos; often brightly colored
Etymologies
- From wolabā, an Australian Aboriginal word from New South Wales. (Wiktionary)
- Dharuk walaba. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A unique antimicrobial has been discovered in wallaby milk that could be used in hospitals to fight deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria”
“But the wallaby is a kangaroo, it's just a different size of kangaroo.”
“The wallaby is a smaller kind of kangaroo which is also hunted.”
“There is also a small kind of kangaroo, called the wallaby, which, though I have not hunted, I have eaten.”
“Until this very moment I thought a wallaby was a kind of shoe, so you need to help me out.”
“The wallaby is a favourite food of the Tasmanian devil, yet the speed of this fellow's appearance has surprised even Mr King.”
“The toys that Grooms remembers best from his childhood were a clawless hammer he wouldn't be without and a "wallaby," a play car that was steered with the feet and powered by pumping a”
“One correction, the wildlife manager says there hasn't been a documented sighting since 1990, but the Honolulu Advertiser noted a wandering wallaby in 2002.”
“On reading your pages we promptly were greeted with something a wallaby might have excreted:”
“Good news for Guadelupe fur seal, Bahian tree rat and bridled nailtail wallaby – but survey warns rate of extinctions still accelerating• One in five plant species face extinction•'Lost 'amphibian species rediscovered”
The Guardian: This seal was declared extinct in 1892. So what is it doing alive and well today?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wallaby’.
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Australasian mammals
Australasian mammals, monotremes, anteater, duckbill, echidna, giant anteater, ornithorhynchus, platypus, porcupine, water mole, carnivorous marsu..., banded anteater and 220 more...
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the (chained) unbearable cuteness of ...
You know what I'm talking about. Look for the images...
tapir, pangolin, pika, chunky baby chow ..., roundbelly cowfish, tree octopus, turtlenecked stra..., furze-pig, otter, bilby, wallaby, meerkat and 43 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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arby's words
me default
shirty, kerfuffle, tenterhooks, susurrus, palimpsest, crimson, rufous, cicatrix, crepuscular, carapace, quaff, exanimate and 239 more...
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Animals With Nifty Names
hamster, gerbil, ferret, horse, skink, newt, shark, octopus, weasel, panda, giraffe, hyena and 129 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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Vocabulary
My ever expanding vocabulary...
feuterer, abattoir, kibosh, sequin, shiftless, scrimshanker, sic, moniker, dogsbody, contranym, autoantonym, exhortation and 306 more...
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Critters
cockle, cicada, appaloosa, brachiopod, bivalve, aye-aye, cygnet, alewife, chamois, ermine, drake, dugong and 381 more...
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rwkasten's Words
antibody, ossify, oeuvre, emotive, oblong, ululate, amoeba, aeon, outre, perfidy, venal, verity and 55 more...
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Australian Animals
rawr
wombat, bilby, kangaroo, platypus, dingo, wallaby, kiwi, bush baby, water rat, kingsnake, echidna, koala and 28 more...
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names of animals/plants/etc
lichen, grosbeak, hen, cedar, blackbird, chanticleer, mite, thrush, mesquit, arugula, loon, wallaby and 3 more...
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Great Creature Names
pit viper, sidewinder, jaguarundi, sea squirt, copepods, gastropods, ratfish, mollusks, platypus, dinoflagellates, kookabura, coconut crab and 88 more...
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A Day at the Zoo
Being animals, not necessarily limited to those commonly found in zoos.
chimpanzee, gorilla, elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, lion, tiger, bear, boa constrictor, cobra, monkey and 18 more...
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pouchy keen
Names of some of our non-placental animal friends
bandicoot, quoll, numbat, wombat, opossum, kangaroo, koala, bilby, wallaby, tasmanian devil, dunnart, mulgara and 59 more...
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zoology
animals of interest
sloth, kakapo, kaka, hoatzin, numbat, wombat, hyena, wallaby, emu, morepork, jackdaw, magpie and 73 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wallaby.
bilby Lay a wallaby baby ball away, Al. Oct 18, 2008
chained_bear Cuteness. And more cuteness. Aug 8, 2008
chained_bear OED: A kangaroo belonging to any of the small species of the genus Macropus. All the species are confined to Australia and the neighbouring islands.
Me: Wallaby cute! They're pretty nifty creatures and really love orange-flavored mineral water. Feb 6, 2007