Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any member of the class Myriapoda, particularly one of the chilopod order; a milleped.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Spiders, thousand-legs, crawfishes and even earth-worms are often spoken of as bugs.

    An Elementary Study of Insects Leonard Haseman

  • They squirmed and wriggled, contorted and crackled like giant thousand-legs, and almost excited in me a repulsion.

    Mystic Isles of the South Seas. Frederick O'Brien 1900

  • You don't want to lie on a mat where the thousand-legs can get you -- and if they get you, you die.

    White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900

  • About twenty-five of them go by the general name of "thousand-legs" or millipedes, as each has from forty to fifty-five cylindrical rings in the body, and two pairs of legs to each ring.

    A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891

  • If we examine a thousand-legs or a wood-louse we see that here again the body is evidently composed of a series of rings or segments, to most of which jointed legs are attached.

    The Common Frog 1874

  • The only animals which we saw on the sand at that time were spiders, which are to be found almost everywhere whether on snow or ice-water or sand, -- and a venomous-looking, long, narrow worm, one of the myriapods, or thousand-legs.

    Cape Cod 1865

  • "thousand-legs" generally coils up and remains motionless, shamming death, or "playing possum," as it is popularly put, as a means of defence; while the centipede scampers hurriedly away and endeavors to hide beneath leaf, chip, or other object.

    A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891

  • "thousand-legs," deserve more than a passing notice.

    A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. Various 1891

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