ALLIGATOR • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Alligator

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/ˈæləgˌeɪtər/ Listen

noun

Alligator n.

1.

(Zool.) A large carnivorous reptile of the Crocodile family, peculiar to America. It has a shorter and broader snout than the crocodile, and the large teeth of the lower jaw shut into pits in the upper jaw, which has no marginal notches. Besides the common species of the southern United States, there are allied species in South America.

2.

(Mech.) Any machine with strong jaws, one of which opens like the movable jaw of an alligator; as,

(a)

(Metal Working) A form of squeezer for the puddle ball;

(b)

(Mining) A rock breaker;

(c)

(Printing) A kind of job press, called also alligator press.

Alligator apple (Bot.), the fruit of the Anona palustris, a West Indian tree. It is said to be narcotic in its properties.

Alligator fish (Zool.), a marine fish of northwestern America (Podothecus acipenserinus).

Alligator gar (Zool.), one of the gar pikes (Lepidosteus spatula) found in the southern rivers of the United States. The name is also applied to other species of gar pikes.

Alligator pear (Bot.), a corruption of Avocado pear. See Avocado.

Alligator snapper, Alligator tortoise, Alligator turtle (Zool.), a very large and voracious turtle (Macrochelys lacertina) inhabiting the rivers of the southern United States. It sometimes reaches the weight of two hundred pounds. Unlike the common snapping turtle, to which the name is sometimes erroneously applied, it has a scaly head and many small scales beneath the tail. This name is sometimes given to other turtles, as to species of Trionyx.

Alligator wood, the timber of a tree of the West Indies (Guarea Swartzii).

verb

alligator v. i. & v. t. To form shallow cracks in a reticulated pattern on the surface, or in a coating on the surface, of an object.

See images of 'Alligator'

Etymology of 'Alligator'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alligator" Quotes from Famous Books

... two small heads of lettuce; four medium sized tomatoes; one alligator pear. Place lettuce leaves on plate with two or three slices of tomatoes. Cover with rings of alligator pear cut very thin. ...

— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... their yearly procession with snakes wrapped about their necks, waists, and wrists? And was there not, too, serious business to be done? How could he secure and forward to England a few things that he must have, such as a gar alligator, a pair of mocking-birds, a Floridian flamingo, a ruby humming-bird, "a Texan horned frog, with a distinctly-developed tail, crustaceous, probably antediluvian, and credibly reported to live upon air," ...

— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various

... has did the same way at school purty much. It got so for a-while at one school thet not a child in school could be hired to put his hand in the wood-box, not knowin' ef any piece o' bark or old wood in it would turn out to be a young alligator or toad-frog thawin' out. Teacher hisself picked up a chip, reckless, one day, an' it hopped up, and knocked off his spectacles. Of cose it wasn't no chip. Hopper-toad frogs an' wood-bark chips, why, they favors consider'ble—lay 'em ...

— Sonny, A Christmas Guest • Ruth McEnery Stuart

... The huge alligator tore up to Joam Garral, and after knocking him over with a sweep of his tail, ran at him with ...

— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne

... corroborees are sometimes huge sheets of bark fastened on to poles; these sheets of bark are painted in different designs and colours, something like Moorish embroideries. Sometimes there is a huge imitation of an alligator made of logs plastered over with earth and painted in stripes of different colours, a piece of wood cut open stuck in at one end as a gaping mouth. This alligator corroboree is generally indicative of a Boorah, or initiation ceremony, being near ...

— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

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