Otter
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae. countable, uncountable
- 2 annatto (dye) obsolete, uncountable
- 3 Archaic form of attar. alt-of, archaic, uncountable
"[…] the precious perfume called otter of roses."
- 4 freshwater carnivorous mammal having webbed and clawed feet and dark brown fur wordnet
- 5 An aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae.; The flesh or fur of this animal uncountable
"'The Aleuts come from a country far to the north,' he said. 'Their ways are not ours nor is their language. They have come to take otter and to give us our share in many goods which they have and which we can use."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 the fur of an otter wordnet
- 7 A hairy man with a slender physique, in contrast with a bear, who is more thickset. countable, slang, uncountable
- 1 A river with its source in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, and which flows through Devon, to Lyme Bay in the English Channel.
Example
More examples"But otter hunting is no "mug's game." Let it be known that it requires more than a few couple of hounds and a brace or so of terriers to kill an otter."
Etymology
From Middle English oter, otir, otur, otyre, from Old English otor, from Proto-West Germanic *otr, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“aquatic, water-animal”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Otter, Dutch otter, German Otter, Swedish utter, Norwegian oter, Icelandic otur, Sanskrit उद्र (udrá), Russian вы́дра (výdra), and Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra, “water snake”). Doublet of Hydra and hydra. More etymology under English water.
Corruption of annotto.
Related phrases
More for "otter"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.