Turtle

Pronunciation

• British IPA: /ˈtɜːtÉ™l/
• US enPR: tûrʹtÉ™l, IPA: /ˈtɝtÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tÉ™l

Modification of French tortue (probably under the influence of turtledove). See tortoise for more.

Full definition of turtle

Noun

1. Any land or marine reptile of the order Testudines, characterised by a protective shell enclosing its body.
2. (Australia, British) A sea turtle.
3. (military) 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.
4. (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.
5. (computing) An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
• 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style: Symbolic computingDepending 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.
6. (printing, historical) The curved plate in which the form is held in a type-revolving cylinder press.

Synonyms

• shelpad
• shield-toad

Derived terms

Verb

1. To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
• 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32‎, page 48Were speeding when car turtled ...Auto crashed into curb and turtled.
2. To turn and swim upside down.
• 2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering‎, page 149I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again.
3. To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
• 1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%).
4. (video games) To build up a large defense force and strike only punctually, rather than going for an offensive strategy.

Old English turtla, ultimately from Latin turtur ("turtledove"), of imitative origin.

Noun

1. (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 ....

Derived terms