Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of myriapods, constituting the family Peripatidæ.
  • noun [lowercase] A species of this genus.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of lowly organized arthropods, found in South Africa, Australia, and tropical America. It constitutes the order Malacopoda.

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

  • noun zoology Any onychophoran of the genus Peripatus

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

  • noun any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous animals common in tropical forests having characteristics of both arthropods and annelid worms

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Peripatus, genus name, from Greek peripatos, walking about, from peripatein, to walk about; see peripatetic.]

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Examples

  • First a swimming lily, Stentor, a solitary animal bloom, twenty-five to the inch; Cothurnia, a double lily, and Gonium, with a quartet of cells clinging tremulously together, progressing unsteadily -- materially toward the rim of my field of vision -- in the evolution of earthly life toward sponges, peripatus, ants and man.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

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