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View synonyms for tortoise

tortoise

[ tawr-tuhs ]

noun

  1. a turtle, especially a terrestrial turtle.
  2. a very slow person or thing.


tortoise

/ ˈtɔːtəs /

noun

  1. any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae, of most warm regions, having a heavy dome-shaped shell and clawed limbs cheloniantestudinal
  2. water tortoise
    another name for terrapin
  3. a slow-moving person
  4. another word for testudo See also giant tortoise


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Word History and Origins

Origin of tortoise1

1350–1400; variant of earlier (15th-century) tortuse, tortose, tortuce, Middle English tortuca < Medieval Latin tortūca, for Late Latin tartarūcha (feminine adj.) of Tartarus (< Greek tartaroûcha ), the tortoise being regarded as an infernal animal; Medieval Latin form influenced by Latin tortus crooked, twisted ( tort )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of tortoise1

C15: probably from Old French tortue (influenced by Latin tortus twisted), from Medieval Latin tortūca, from Late Latin tartarūcha coming from Tartarus, from Greek tartaroukhos; referring to the belief that the tortoise originated in the underworld

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Example Sentences

Tortoise disqualified for technical reasons, first place awarded to Sputnik hare.

The same look of an unruly child behind his tortoise-shell glasses.

“That was bizarre,” he said, his brown eyes getting wide behind his tortoise-shell glasses.

His art collection includes a live tortoise covered in gems and a "flavor organ" on which he can play gustatory fugues.

The tortoise Hollande, early on in his bid to become the Socialist nominee, had only two reporters on his beat.

The legs and arms were carved or made of costly woods, or inlaid or plated with tortoise-shell or the precious metals.

As he glanced through the window he saw an Englishman in the shop holding a tortoise, which he was turning about in his hands.

The sheath itself was hardly less remarkable, made of a single piece of tortoise shell, studded with golden bees.

The tortoise is found sculptured on some of the ruins at Uxmal; it was also stamped upon the coins of Grecian Thebes and gina.

If you've spectacles, don't have a tortoise-shell rim, And don't go near the water—unless you can swim.

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