tortoise

[ tawr-tuhs ]
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noun
  1. a turtle, especially a terrestrial turtle.

  2. a very slow person or thing.

Origin of tortoise

1
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 (see tort)

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How to use tortoise in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for tortoise

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: Related adjectives: chelonian, testudinal

  2. water tortoise another name for terrapin

  1. a slow-moving person

  2. another word for testudo See also giant tortoise

Origin of tortoise

1
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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012