Tortoise
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Any of various land-dwelling reptiles, of the family Testudinidae (chiefly Canada, US) or the order Testudines (chiefly UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, India), whose body is enclosed in a shell (carapace plus plastron). The animal can withdraw its head and four legs partially into the shell, providing some protection from predators.
"The tortoise, with its characteristic protrusion of the head and neck, was a symbol sacred to Venus. It represented the procreative principle."
- 2 usually herbivorous land turtles having clawed elephant-like limbs; worldwide in arid areas except Australia and Antarctica wordnet
- 3 Synonym of cat (sense 11, a wheeled shelter)
Example
More examples"The small island looked like a tortoise from a distance."
Etymology
From Middle English tortuse, tortuce, tortuge, from Medieval Latin tortuca, of uncertain origin. May be from Late Latin tartarūcha, from tartarūchus, from Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos, “holder of Tartaros, Tartarus, the land of the dead in ancient stories”), because it used to be thought that tortoises and turtles came from the underworld and they were commonly paired with such infernal beasts; see Τάρταρος (Tártaros). Or, from Latin tortus (“twisted”). The French-looking Modern English spelling tortoise may be influenced by porpoise. Displaced native Old English byrdling.
Related phrases
More for "tortoise"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.