turtle
See also: Turtle
English
WOTD – 10 April 2010
Pronunciation
A Florida box turtle, a land turtle.
A sea turtle.
Etymology 1
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).
Alternative forms
- tortle (obsolete)
Noun
turtle (plural turtles)
- (zoology, US, Canada) Any land or marine reptile of the order Testudines, characterised by a protective shell enclosing its body. See also tortoise.
- Synonyms: shellpad (obsolete), shield-toad (archaic)
- (zoology, Australia, Britain, specifically) A marine reptile of that order.
- Synonym: sea turtle
- (military, historical) 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.
- Synonym: testudo
- (computing) 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.
- (computing) An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
- 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style: Symbolic computing
- 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 Logo Style: Symbolic computing
- (printing, historical) The curved plate in which the form is held in a type-revolving cylinder press.
- (computing theory) 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.
- (dance) 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".
Derived terms
terms derived from turtle in the above senses
- African helmeted turtle
- Afro-American sideneck turtle
- Alabama red-bellied turtle
- alligator turtle, alligator-turtle
- American turtle
- Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles
- Arakan forest turtle
- Australian short-necked turtle
- Austro-American sideneck turtle
- black marsh turtle
- black turtle bean
- Blanding's turtle
- bog turtle
- box turtle, box-turtle
- chicken turtle, chicken-turtle
- common snakeneck turtle
- cooter turtle
- diamond-backed turtle
- dragon turtle
- eastern long-neck turtle
- Fitzroy River turtle
- flatback turtle
- Florida redbelly turtle
- Fly River turtle
- golden coin turtle
- gopher turtle
- greaved turtle
- Greenland turtle
- green turtle
- have a turtle's head
- hawk-billed turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, hawksbill turtle
- horned turtle
- land turtle
- leaf turtle
- leather turtle
- leatherback turtle
- leather-turtle
- leathery turtle
- loggerhead turtle, logger-headed turtle
- lyre turtle
- Madagascan big-headed turtle
- map turtle
- marine turtle
- marsh turtle
- mata mata turtle, matamata turtle
- Mary River turtle
- mock turtle
- mock turtle soup
- mud turtle
- musk turtle
- New Guinea snakeneck turtle
- Olive Ridley turtle
- painted turtle
- pancake turtle
- pig-nosed turtle, pig-nose turtle, pignose turtle
- pitted-shelled turtle
- plateless turtle
- Plymouth redbelly turtle
- pond turtle
- purple turtler
- red-bellied turtle
- river turtle
- roofed turtle
- sea turtle, sea-turtle
- side-necked turtle
- silver stater with a turtle
- snake-eating turtle
- snake-necked turtle
- snapping turtle, snapping-turtle
- soft-shelled turtle, soft-shell turtle, softshell turtle
- spiny turtle
- spotted turtle
- toad-headed turtle
- twisted-necked turtle
- tortoise-shell turtle
- trunk turtle, trunk-turtle
- turn the turtle
- turn turtle
- turning turtles
- turtle-back, turtleback
- turtle bean
- turtleburger
- turtle-corral
- turtle cowrie, turtle cowry
- turtle-crab
- turtle-crawl
- turtle-deck
- turtledom
- turtle-egging
- turtle excluder device
- turtle-footed
- turtle-frolic
- turtle graphics
- turtle grass, turtle-grass
- turtle-head, turtlehead
- turtle hull
- turtle-insect
- Turtle Island
- turtle-kraal
- turtle neck, turtle-neck, turtleneck
- turtle peg, turtle-peg
- turtle-press
- turtler
- turtle racing
- turtles all the way down
- turtle shell
- turtle ship
- turtle soup
- turtle stone
- turtle-shell
- turtle-soup
- turtle-stone
- turtlet
- turtle trade
- turtle-twine
- turtling
- turtly
- water turtle
- western swamp turtle
- wood turtle
Translations
land or marine reptile with a shell
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sea turtle
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Roman attack method
computing: type of robot
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
turtle (third-person singular simple present turtles, present participle turtling, simple past and past participle turtled)
- To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
- 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32, page 48
- Were speeding when car turtled […] Auto crashed into curb and turtled.
- 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32, page 48
- To turn and swim upside down.
- 2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering, page 149:
- I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again.
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- To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
- 1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153:
- Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%).
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- (video games, board games) To build up a large defense force and strike only punctually, rather than going for an offensive strategy.
Translations
to flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down
to turn and swim upside down
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to hunt turtles
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References
Etymology 2
From Middle English turtle, tortle, turtel, turtul, from Old English turtle, turtla (“turtledove”), ultimately from Latin turtur (“turtledove”), of imitative origin.
Noun
turtle (plural turtles)
- (now rare, archaic) A turtle dove.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.8:
- The same he tooke, and with a riband new, / In which his Ladies colours were, did bind / About the turtles neck […] .
- 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:
- As the turtle, every day has been a black day with her since her husband died, and what should we unruly members make here?
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.8:
Derived terms
terms derived from turtle in the above senses
- turtle-bird
- turtle dove, turtle-dove, turtledove
- turtleish, turtlish
- turtleise, turtlise, turtleize, turtlize
Translations
turtle dove — see turtle dove
Old English
Alternative forms
- turtla
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈturtle/
Declension
Declension of turtle (weak)
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | turtle | turtlan |
| accusative | turtlan | turtlan |
| genitive | turtlan | turtlena |
| dative | turtlan | turtlum |
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