turtle
To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
Noun biology, natural sciences
- Any land, aquatic, or semi-aquatic reptile of the order Testudines, characterised by a protective shell enclosing its body. See also tortoise.
- A unique anti-aphrodisiac was the heart of a turtle carried in a wolf's skin. It prevented a person from ever being tempted amorously. - 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press,...
Synonyms: shellpad shield-toad
- A marine reptile of that order.
Synonyms: sea turtle
- An Ancient Roman attack method, where the shields held by the soldiers hide them, not only left, right, front and back, but also from above.
Synonyms: testudo
- A type of robot having a domed case (and so resembling the reptile), used in education, especially for making line drawings by means of a computer program.
- An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
- Depending on which version of Logo you have, the turtle may look like an actual animal with a head and four legs or — as in Berkeley Logo — it may be represented as a triangle. - 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science...
- The curved plate in which the form is held in a type-revolving cylinder press.
- A small element towards the end of a list of items to be bubble sorted, and thus tending to take a long time to be swapped into its correct position. Compare rabbit.
- A breakdancing move consisting of a float during which the dancer's weight shifts from one hand to the other, producing rotation or a circular "walk".
- A low stand for a lamp etc.
- Alan Bermingham, Location Lighting for Television Using an appropriate turtle allows the full range of pan and tilt adjustments on the luminaire and avoids possible heat damage to floor coverings.
- A candy with pecans, caramel, and chocolate, often shaped like a turtle.
Origin
Modification of Middle English tortou, tortu, from Old French tortüe (under the influence of Middle English turtel, turtur (“turtledove”), see Etymology 2 below), from Medieval Latin tortuca (compare Spanish tortuga), the same source of tortoise (see there for more). Displaced native Old English byrdling (See birdling).
Forms
Synonyms
birdling chelid chelonian shellpad shield-toad terrapin testudine tortoise turpin
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Related
Derived
African forest turtle African helmeted turtle African sideneck turtle African softshell turtle Alabama map turtle Alabama red-bellied turtle Alabama turtle Alamos mud turtle alligator turtle alligator-turtle American turtle American Turtle Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles Arakan forest turtle arrau turtle Australasian pig-nose turtle Australian short-necked turtle Austro-American sideneck turtle awkward turtle big-headed turtle black-breasted leaf turtle black marsh turtle black turtle bean Blanding's turtle
Noun archaic
- A turtle dove.
- The same he tooke, and with a riband new, / In which his Ladies colours were, did bind / About the turtles neck […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for...
- As the turtle, every day has been a black day with her since her husband died, and what should we unruly members make here? - 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:
Origin
From Middle English turtle, tortle, turtel, turtul, from Old English turtle, turtla (“turtledove”), ultimately from Latin turtur (“turtledove”), of imitative origin.
Forms
Synonyms
birdling chelid chelonian shellpad shield-toad terrapin testudine tortoise turpin
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Related
Derived
turtle-bird turtle dove turtle-dove turtledove turtleise turtlise turtleize turtlize turtleish turtlish
Verb
- To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
- Were speeding when car turtled […] Auto crashed into curb and turtled. - 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32, page 48
- To move along slowly.
- We turtled along in Manitoba, back into the heart of the prairies. - 2012, Sophie B. Watson, Cadillac Couches, page 193:
- To turn and swim upside down.
- I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again. - 2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering, page 149:
- To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
- Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%). - 1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153:
- To build up a large defense force and strike only occasionally, rather than going for an offensive strategy.
- To struggle to hold back an involuntary bowel movement.
Synonyms: prairie dog