tor·toise

(tôr′tĭs)

1. Any of various terrestrial turtles, especially one of the family Testudinidae, characteristically having thick clublike hind limbs and a high, rounded carapace.

2. One that moves slowly; a laggard.

[Middle English tortuce, turtle, tortoise, probably partly from Anglo-Norman tortouse (variant of Old French tortue) and partly from Medieval Latin tortūca, both ultimately from Vulgar Latin *tartarūca, feminine of *tartarūcus, of Tartarus; see turtle¹.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tortoise

(ˈtɔːtəs)

1. (Animals) any herbivorous terrestrial chelonian reptile of the family Testudinidae, of most warm regions, having a heavy dome-shaped shell and clawed limbs.

2. (Animals) water tortoise another name for terrapin

3. a slow-moving person

4. (Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) another word for testudo See also giant tortoise

[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 and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tor•toise

(ˈtɔr təs)

n.

1. a turtle, esp. a terrestrial turtle.

2. a very slow person or thing.

[1350–1400; variant of earlier 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]

tor·toise

(tôr′tĭs)

Any of various turtles that live on land.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tortoise

shellpad - Another name for a tortoise.
testudinate - Means "slow-moving; like a turtle," from Latin testudo, "tortoise," and also describes something curved or vaulted like a turtle shell.
Galapagos Islands - Named for the massive tortoises living there, from Old Spanish galapago, "tortoise."
turtle, tortoise, terrapin - Turtle is applied to those living in water and tortoise to those that live on land, while terrapins live in fresh water; turtle and tortoise may come from the Latin root tort, with reference to the animals' twisted feet.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

tortoise - usually herbivorous land turtles having clawed elephant-like limbs; worldwide in arid area except Australia and Antarctica

turtle - any of various aquatic and land reptiles having a bony shell and flipper-like limbs for swimming

family Testudinidae, Testudinidae - land tortoises

European tortoise, Testudo graeca - small land tortoise of southern Europe

giant tortoise - very large tortoises of the Galapagos and Seychelles islands

gopher tortoise, gopher turtle, Gopherus polypemus, gopher - burrowing edible land tortoise of southeastern North America

desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii - burrowing tortoise of the arid western United States and northern Mexico; may be reclassified as a member of genus Xerobates

Texas tortoise - close relative to the desert tortoise; may be reclassified as a member of genus Xerobates

tortoise

noun

Related words
adjectives chelonian, testudinal

see reptiles

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

سُلَحْفَاةسُلْحَفاه

želva

skildpadde

testudo

kilpikonna

kornjača

szárazföldi teknõsbékateknősteknősbéka

kura-kura

skjaldbaka

tartaruga gatto tigrato

カメ

거북이

vėžlys

bruņurupucis

korytnačka

želva

sköldpadda

เต่า

kaplumbağakara kamlumbağasıtosbağa

con rùa

龟

tortoise

[ˈtɔːtəs] N → tortuga f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

tortoise

[ˈtɔː^rtəs] n → tortue f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

tortoise

n → Schildkröte f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

tortoise

[ˈtɔːtəs] n → tartaruga

tortoise

(ˈtoːtəs) noun

a kind of four-footed, slow-moving reptile covered with a hard shell.

tortoise

→ سُلَحْفَاة želva skildpadde Schildkröte χελώνα tortuga kilpikonna tortue kornjača tartaruga カメ 거북이 schildpad skilpadde żółw tartaruga черепаха sköldpadda เต่า kaplumbağa con rùa 龟

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A Tortoise desired to change its place of residence, so he asked an Eagle to carry him to his new home, promising her a rich reward for her trouble.

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I will first describe the habits of the tortoise (Testudo nigra, formerly called Indica), which has been so frequently alluded to.

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There is a well known, so-called sophism of the ancients consisting in this, that Achilles could never catch up with a tortoise he was following, in spite of the fact that he traveled ten times as fast as the tortoise.

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Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise brought a salad with him in a string bag.

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`Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.

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There were stories of the Great Tortoise which lived in a pond near.

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The great rock was as smooth and as bare as the back of a tortoise.

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First the new-born child found a tortoise and from its shell contrived the lyre; next, with much cunning circumstance, he stole Apollo's cattle and, when charged with the theft by Apollo, forced that god to appear in undignified guise before the tribunal of Zeus.

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It was in the likeness of an abject and creeping tortoise."

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In one place I saw a tortoise which was twenty cubits long and as many broad, also a fish that was like a cow and had skin so thick that it was used to make shields.

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There he lay like a tortoise enclosed in its shell, or a side of bacon between two kneading-troughs, or a boat bottom up on the beach; nor did the gang of jokers feel any compassion for him when they saw him down; so far from that, extinguishing their torches they began to shout afresh and to renew the calls to arms with such energy, trampling on poor Sancho, and slashing at him over the shield with their swords in such a way that, if he had not gathered himself together and made himself small and drawn in his head between the shields, it would have fared badly with the poor governor, as, squeezed into that narrow compass, he lay, sweating and sweating again, and commending himself with all his heart to God to deliver him from his present peril.

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What reasonable man ever supposed that ornaments were something outward and in the skin merely -- that the tortoise got his spotted shell, or the shell-fish its mother-o'-pearl tints, by such a contract as the inhabitants of Broadway their Trinity Church?

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