Also see definition of "tortoise" in Bible Study Dictionaries

 

Table of Contents POS
HYPHEN
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
DEVIL DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
ROGET THESAURUS

RELATED WORDS : box tortoise desert tortoise european tortoise giant tortoise gopher tortoise painted tortoise texas tortoise tortoise plant tortoise shell

WORDNET DICTIONARY

Noun tortoise has 1 sense

• tortoise(n = noun.animal) - usually herbivorous land turtles having clawed elephant-like limbs; worldwide in arid area except Australia and Antarctica;
is a kind of turtle
is a member of family testudinidae, testudinidae
has particulars: european tortoise, testudo graeca, giant tortoise, gopher, gopher tortoise, gopher turtle, gopherus polypemus, desert tortoise, gopherus agassizii, texas tortoise

CIDE DICTIONARY

OXFORD DICTIONARY

DEVIL DICTIONARY

tortoise

n. A creature thoughtfully created to supply occasion for the following lines by the illustrious Ambat Delaso:

TO MY PET TORTOISE

My friend, you are not graceful -- not at all;
Your gait's between a stagger and a sprawl.

Nor are you beautiful: your head's a snake's
To look at, and I do not doubt it aches.

As to your feet, they'd make an angel weep.
'Tis true you take them in whene'er you sleep.

No, you're not pretty, but you have, I own,
A certain firmness -- mostly you're [sic] backbone.

Firmness and strength (you have a giant's thews)
Are virtues that the great know how to use --

I wish that they did not; yet, on the whole,
You lack -- excuse my mentioning it -- Soul.

So, to be candid, unreserved and true,
I'd rather you were I than I were you.

Perhaps, however, in a time to be,
When Man's extinct, a better world may see

Your progeny in power and control,
Due to the genesis and growth of Soul.

So I salute you as a reptile grand
Predestined to regenerate the land.

Father of Possibilities, O deign
To accept the homage of a dying reign!

In the far region of the unforeknown
I dream a tortoise upon every throne.

I see an Emperor his head withdraw
Into his carapace for fear of Law;

A King who carries something else than fat,
Howe'er acceptably he carries that;

A President not strenuously bent
On punishment of audible dissent --

Who never shot (it were a vain attack)
An armed or unarmed tortoise in the back;

Subject and citizens that feel no need
To make the March of Mind a wild stampede;

All progress slow, contemplative, sedate,
And "Take your time" the word, in Church and State.

O Tortoise, 'tis a happy, happy dream,
My glorious testudinous regime!

I wish in Eden you'd brought this about
By slouching in and chasing Adam out.

THESAURUS

tortoise

alligator, crocodile, crocodilian, dawdle, dawdler, dinosaur, drone, foot-dragger, gator, goldbrick, goof-off, laggard, lie-abed, lingerer, lizard, loiterer, plodder, procrastinator, reptile, reptilian, saurian, sleepyhead, slow goer, slow-foot, slowbelly, slowpoke, slug, sluggard, snail, stick-in-the-mud, terrapin, turtle

ROGET THESAURUS

tortoise

Slowness

N slowness, languor, drawl, creeping, lentor, retardation, slackening, delay, claudication, jog trot, dog trot, mincing steps, slow march, slow time, slow goer, slow coach, slow back, lingerer, loiterer, sluggard, tortoise, snail, poke, dawdle, slow, slack, tardy, dilatory, gentle, easy, leisurely, deliberate, gradual, insensible, imperceptible, glacial, languid, sluggish, slow paced, tardigrade, snail-like, creeping, reptatorial, slowly, leisurely, piano, adagio, largo, larghetto, at half speed, under easy sail, at a foots pace, at a snail's pace, at a funeral pace, in slow time, with mincing steps, with clipped wings, haud passibus aequis, gradually, gradatim, by degrees, by slow degrees, by inches, by little and little, step by step, one step at a time, inch by inch, bit by bit, little by little, seriatim, consecutively, dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit, at a glacial pace.

Also see definition of "tortoise" in Bible Study Dictionaries

For further exploring for "tortoise" in Webster Dictionary Online