tardigrade
English
WOTD – 13 July 2012
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɑɹdɪˌɡɹeɪd/
Audio (UK) (file)
- Rhymes: -eɪd
- Hyphenation: tar‧di‧grade
Etymology 1
From Latin tardigradus (“slowly stepping”), from tardus (“slow”) + gradior (“step, walk”).
Adjective
tardigrade (comparative more tardigrade, superlative most tardigrade)
- Sluggish; moving slowly.
- 1850, Joses Badcock, “Botany; or, Phytology”, in Poems, volume 1, page 67:
- Each tendril ending in a perfect claw, / Obeys the whole routine of Nature's law; / Transforms each sinus to a sylvan shade, / Though p'rhaps its force is rather tardigrade.
- 1863, George Eliot, Romola:
- He ran on into the piazza, but he quickly heard the tramp of feet behind him, for the other two prisoners had been released, and the soldiers were struggling and fighting their way after them, in such tardigrade fashion as their hoof-shaped shoes would allow—impeded, but not very resolutely attacked, by the people.
- 2001, Richard S. Conde, “The Metronome”, in Century One, →ISBN, page 92:
- In sorrow, its voice is tardigrade but loud, dragging time at a snail's pace before our eyes.
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Derived terms
- tardigradous
Translations
sluggish, moving slowly
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Etymology 2
From translingual Tardigrada.
Noun
tardigrade (plural tardigrades)
- (zoology) A member of the animal phylum Tardigrada.
- Synonym: water bear
- Sloth.
Hyponyms
- macrobiotid
Translations
water bear — see water bear
References
- tardigrade at OneLook Dictionary Search
- tardigrade in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /taʁ.di.ɡʁad/
Audio (Switzerland) (file)
Noun
tardigrade m (plural tardigrades)
- tardigrade; water bear
Further reading
- “tardigrade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Adjective
tardigrade f pl
- feminine plural of tardigrado
Anagrams
- degradarti