Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to reptiles.
  • adjective Resembling or characteristic of a reptile.
  • adjective Despicable; treacherous.
  • noun A reptile.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the Reptilia, in any sense; resembling or like a reptile.
  • noun Any member of the Reptilia; a reptile.

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

  • adjective Belonging to the reptiles.
  • adjective (Geol.) that part of geological time comprising the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, and distinguished as that era in which the class of reptiles attained its highest expansion; -- called also the Secondary or Mezozoic age.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Reptilia; a reptile.

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

  • adjective Reptile-like.
  • adjective Of or referring to reptiles.
  • adjective Treacherous.
  • noun Reptile
  • noun ufology One of a race of extraterrestrial shape-shifters purported to secretly control the world.

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

  • noun any cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia including tortoises, turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators, crocodiles, and extinct forms
  • adjective of or relating to the class Reptilia

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin Reptilia +‎ -an.

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Examples

  • It's part of what we call the reptilian core of the brain, associated with wanting, with motivation, with focus and with craving.

    Helen Fisher studies the brain in love 2008

  • It's part of what we call the reptilian core of the brain, associated with wanting, with motivation, with focus and with craving.

    Helen Fisher studies the brain in love 2008

  • It's part of what we call the reptilian core of the brain, associated with wanting, with motivation, with focus and with craving.

    Helen Fisher studies the brain in love 2008

  • The oldest, which he calls the reptilian brain, controls aggression and passionate impulsiveness.

    Sequential Problem Solving A Student Handbook with Checklists for Successful Critical Thinking Fredric Lozo

  • One pays according to an iron schedule -- for every strength the balanced weakness; for every high a corresponding low; for every fictitious god-like moment an equivalent time in reptilian slime.

    Chapter 6 2010

  • Lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed have failed in a bid to summons a seven foot tall blood-drinking reptilian from the star system Alpha Draconis to court to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Al Fayed's son Dodi and Diana Princess of Wales.

    Al Fayed fury at inquest witness ruling 2007

  • Lawyers for Mohamed Al Fayed have failed in a bid to summons a seven foot tall blood-drinking reptilian from the star system Alpha Draconis to court to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Al Fayed's son Dodi and Diana Princess of Wales.

    Archive 2007-10-01 2007

  • We retain reptilian reflexes deep in our minds (fight or flight) while the more complex structuring of knowledge (how to do statistics) is layered over those primitive networks.

    Boing Boing: April 2, 2006 - April 8, 2006 Archives 2006

  • a corresponding low; for every fictitious god-like moment an equivalent time in reptilian slime.

    Chapter VI 1913

  • It comes from the most primitive part of what evolutionary psychologists call the reptilian brain, the part of the brain that governs instincts, heartbeat and breathing.

    John Hope Bryant: The Problem With Short-Termism 2009

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