Shield-toad

Alternative forms

• shieldtoad, shield toad, shelt-toad

Origin

From shield + toad. Compare shelled-toad, shell-toad, shellpad, shell-paddock. Compare also West Frisian skyldpod ("tortoise", literally shield-toad), Dutch schildpad ("tortoise", literally shield-toad), German Schildkröte ("tortoise", literally shield-toad), Swedish sköldpadda ("tortoise"), Icelandic sjaldbaka ("turtle", literally shield-back).

Full definition of shield-toad

Noun

1. A turtle or tortoise.
• 1956, Henry Goddard Leach, My last seventy years:I was particularly impressed by the, to me, exotic soups— the hot fruit soup, the chocolate soup, and particularly the thick mock turtle soup, called in Danish Forlorenskildpaddesuppe, which, literally translated means "Fake shield-toad soup."
• 1995, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies:Here is another example of the phenomenon: Doug: The Germans call a tortoise a SchiMkrote — literally, a "shield-toad". Carol; "Shield-toad"?! Come onl That's like' calling an eagle a "feather-cow"!
• 2009, Nicoline Van Der Sijs, Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops:From Dutch schildpad, meaning “turtle,” from schild (“shield”) and pad (“toad”), so literally “shieldtoad”; adopted in the seventeenth or eighteenth century and still used regionally.
• 2010, Hugh Peter McGrath, Michael Comenetz, Valery's Graveyard:But we already know that a shield-toad is a Frenchman, while the sun is Apollo's shield.