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lemming - 5 dictionary results

lem⋅ming

[lem-ing]

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–noun

any of various small, mouselike rodents of the genera Lemmus, Myopus, and Dicrostonyx, of far northern regions, as L. lemmus, of Norway, Sweden, etc., noted for periodic mass migrations that sometimes result in mass drownings.

Origin:
1600–10; < Norw; c. Icel lǣmingi lemming, lǣmingr loon; akin to Goth laian to revile, Icel lā to blame

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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lem·ming (lěm'ĭng)

n. Any of various small, thickset rodents, especially of the genus Lemmus, inhabiting northern regions and known for periodic mass migrations that sometimes end in drowning.

[Norwegian, from Old Norse læmingi, læmingr.]

Lemming

Lem"ming\ (l[e^]m"m[i^]ng), n. [Nor. lemming, lemende; cf. Sw. lemel, Lapp. lummik.] (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of small arctic rodents of the genera Myodes and Cuniculus, resembling the meadow mice in form. They are found in both hemispheres.

Note: The common Northern European lemming (Myodes lemmus) is remarkable for making occasional devastating migrations in enormous numbers from the mountains into the lowlands.

lemming

"small arctic rodent," 1607, from Norw. lemming, from O.N. lomundr "lemming." Perhaps from Lapp luomek. Fig. sense (in reference to their mass migrations that sometimes end in plunges into the sea) is from 1959.

Lemming

The act of following the crowd into an investment that will inevitably head for disaster.

Investopedia Commentary

In the animal kingdom, a lemming is a rodent known for periodic mass migrations that occasionally end in drowning.

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