chinchilla

[ chin-chil-uh ]
See synonyms for chinchilla on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a small, South American rodent, Chinchilla laniger, raised for its soft, silvery gray fur: now rare in the wild.

  2. the fur of this animal.

  1. something, as a coat or jacket, made of chinchilla fur: a floor-length chinchilla.

  2. a thick, napped, woolen fabric for coats.

Origin of chinchilla

1
1595–1605; <Spanish, perhaps, equivalent to chinchechinch + -illa<Latin -illa diminutive suffix

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use chinchilla in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for chinchilla

chinchilla

/ (tʃɪnˈtʃɪlə) /


noun
  1. a small gregarious hystricomorph rodent, Chinchilla laniger, inhabiting mountainous regions of South America: family Chinchillidae. It has a stocky body and is bred in captivity for its soft silvery grey fur

  2. the highly valued fur of this animal

  1. mountain chinchilla or mountain viscacha any of several long-tailed rodents of the genus Lagidium, having coarse poor quality fur

  2. a breed of rabbit with soft silver-grey fur

  3. a thick napped woollen cloth used for coats

Origin of chinchilla

1
C17: from Spanish, perhaps from Aymara

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012