zebra

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Everybody will tell you that the zebra is a fearful pest and must be exterminated if civilization and progress are to continue.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Any of several swift, wild, horselike African mammals of the genus Equus, having distinctive overall markings of alternating white and black or brown stripes.
  2. noun Any of various striped organisms, such as the zebra butterfly.
  3. noun A referee in football.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • State wildlife officials say a destructive species known as the zebra mussel has been discovered in California for the first time. —  Feeds4all documents in category 'SEO'
  • No one wants a Polaroid picture taken of themselves next to a poor old donkey painted black and white like a zebra, and in the bars the strippers pole-dance pretty much to one another. —  The Guardian World News
  • Everybody will tell you that the zebra is a fearful pest and must be exterminated if civilization and progress are to continue. —  In Africa Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country
  • The habitat of the zebra is said to extend as far north as Abyssinia; but, perhaps, the "congo dauw," which certainly inhabits Abyssinia, has been mistaken for the true zebra Of the four species in South Africa, the zebra is a mountain animal, and dwells among the cliffs, while the dauw and quagga rove over the plains and wild karoo deserts. —  The Bush Boys History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family
  • Lions and leopards are very abundant; the zebra is still found in great numbers, and belongs to the Central African variety of Burchell's zebra, which is completely striped down to the hoofs, and is intermediate in many particulars between the true zebra of the mountains and Burchell's zebra of the plains. —  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian, from Old Portuguese zevro, zevra, wild ass. Sense 3, from the referee's striped shirt.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French zèbre, from African zebra.
 

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/ˈzibrə/
by American Heritage

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