Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various small nocturnal leaping rodents of the family Dipodidae of Asia and northern Africa, having long hind legs and a long tufted tail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rodent quadruped of the family Dipodidœ, subfamily Dipodinœ, and especially of the genus Dipus; a gerbil, or jumping-mouse of the old world.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any small jumping rodent of the genus Dipus, esp. Dipus Ægyptius, which is common in Egypt and the adjacent countries. The jerboas have very long hind legs and a long tail.
  • noun (Zoöl.) small Australian kangaroo (Bettongia penicillata), about the size of a common hare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small, mouse-like, jumping rodent (family Dipodidae) resembling a miniature kangaroo, having a long tufted tail, very small fore feet, but very long hind legs, native to the deserts of Asia and northern Africa.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun mouselike jumping rodent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin jerbōa, from Arabic jarbū‘.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Arabic يربوع.

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