Tusk

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtÊŒsk/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒsk

From Middle English tusk (also tux, tusch), from Old English tūx, tūsc ("grinder, canine tooth, tusk"), from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz ("tooth"), extended form of Proto-Germanic *tanþs ("tooth"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts ("tooth"). Cognate with West Frisian tosk ("tooth"), Icelandic toskur ("a tusk, tooth") (whence the Old Norse and Icelandic and respectively), Gothic (tunþus, "tooth") and (tundi, "thorn, tooth"). More at tooth.

Full definition of tusk

Noun

1. One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar.Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.
2. A small projection on a (tusk) tenon.
3. A tusk shell.
4. (carpentry) A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets, called teeth.

Verb

1. To dig up using a tusk, as boars do.
2. (obsolete) To bare or gnash the teeth.

Related terms

• tusked
• tusker
• tusklike
• tusky
• tusk tenon

Noun

1. A fish, the torsk.