Reptile
adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any member of the class Reptilia that is not a bird— a cold-blooded vertebrate with dry scales that usually lays eggs, such as a lizard, snake, turtle, tortoise, crocodile, alligator, etc. informal
- 2 any cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia including tortoises, turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators, crocodiles, and extinct forms wordnet
- 3 Any member of Reptilia, including birds.
- 4 A reptile or amphibian. broadly, historical
- 5 A mean, grovelling, loathsome or repulsive person. dated, figuratively
"This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the whole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous absurdity."
- 1 Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs. not-comparable
- 2 Grovelling; low; vulgar. not-comparable
"a reptile race or crew reptile vices"
Example
More examples"The study did rule out the possibility that Nessie, the favorite of folklore, is a long-necked ancient reptile called a plesiosaur. The study also rejected speculations that it might be a Greenland shark or a giant sturgeon."
Etymology
From Middle English reptil, from Old French reptile, from Late Latin rēptile, neuter of reptilis (“creeping”), from Latin rēpō (“to creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“to creep, slink”) (Pokorny; Watkins, 1969).
Related phrases
More for "reptile"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.