Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous multicellular eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Metazoa (or Animalia) that ingest food rather than manufacturing it themselves and are usually able to move about during at least part of their life cycle. Sponges, jellyfishes, flatworms, mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates are animals.
- noun An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
- noun A person who behaves in a bestial or brutish manner.
- noun A human considered with respect to his or her physical nature, as opposed to rational or spiritual nature.
- noun A person having a specified aptitude or set of interests.
- adjective Relating to, characteristic of, or derived from an animal or animals, especially when not human.
- adjective Relating to the physical as distinct from the rational or spiritual nature of people.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to sensation. See
animal spirits , below. - Having life; living; animate.
- Pertaining to the merely sentient part of a living being, as distinguished from the intellectual, rational, or spiritual part; of man, pertaining to those parts of his nature which he shares with inferior animals.
- Of, pertaining to, or derived from animals.
- noun A sentient living being; an individual, organized, animated, and sentient portion of matter; in zoology, one of the Animalia; a member of the animal kingdom, as distinguished from a vegetable or a mineral.
- noun An inferior or irrational sentient being, in contradistinction to man; a brute; a beast: as, men and animals.
- noun A contemptuous term for a human being in whom the animal nature has the ascendancy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An organized living being endowed with sensation and the power of voluntary motion, and also characterized by taking its food into an internal cavity or stomach for digestion; by giving carbonic acid to the air and taking oxygen in the process of respiration; and by increasing in motive power or active aggressive force with progress to maturity.
- noun One of the lower animals; a brute or beast, as distinguished from man.
- adjective Of or relating to animals.
- adjective Pertaining to the merely sentient part of a creature, as distinguished from the intellectual, rational, or spiritual part.
- adjective Consisting of the flesh of animals.
- adjective See
Magnetism andMesmerism . - adjective the electricity developed in some animals, as the electric eel, torpedo, etc.
- adjective (Zoöl.) a name given to certain marine animals resembling a flower, as any species of actinia or sea anemone, and other Anthozoa, hydroids, starfishes, etc.
- adjective (Physiol.) the heat generated in the body of a living animal, by means of which the animal is kept at nearly a uniform temperature.
- adjective See under
Spirit . - adjective the whole class of beings endowed with animal life. It embraces several subkingdoms, and under these there are Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, Species, and sometimes intermediate groupings, all in regular subordination, but variously arranged by different writers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or relating to animals.
- adjective Raw, base, unhindered by social codes.
- adjective Pertaining to the
spirit orsoul ; relating to sensation or innervation. - adjective slang, Ireland Excellent.
- noun In
scientific usage, amulticellular organism that is usuallymobile , whosecells are not encased in a rigidcell wall (distinguishing it fromplants andfungi ) and which derives energy solely from the consumption of otherorganisms (distinguishing it fromplants ). - noun In
non-scientific usage, any member of the kingdomAnimalia other than ahuman being . - noun In non-scientific usage, any land-living
vertebrate (i.e. notbirds ,fishes ,insects etc) - noun figuratively A person who behaves wildly; a bestial, brutal, brutish, cruel, or inhuman person.
- noun informal A person of a particular
type .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective marked by the appetites and passions of the body
- noun a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Quality and quantity, then, do not function like genera, for a genus is signified by any predicate that expresses what a subject is (e.g., in the sentence, ˜Man is an animal,™ ˜animal™ is the genus of man), and categories do not function in this way.
Medieval Theories of the Categories Gracia, Jorge 2006
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I could make nothing of it and asked her again -- "What _is_ deresf?" to which she gave the explanation: "ein tir." (tier = animal) "_An animal_? but I don't know the name! have you heard of it?"
Lola or, The Thought and Speech of Animals Henny Kindermann
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An attentive consideration will, however, show the enquirer, that to distinguish man from the remainder of the animal kingdom by his structural characteristics alone, is not so easy a task as would at first sight appear; and he will be obliged at length to return to some such humiliating designation of the _genus animal_, _species homo_, as those above given.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 Various
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Man, according to the old scholastic definition, is "a rational animal" (_animal rationale_), and his animality is distinct in nature from his rationality, though inseparably joined, during life, in one common personality.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
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Popanilla then went on to show that the hitherto received definitions of man were all erroneous; that man is neither a walking animal, nor a talking animal, nor a cooking animal, nor a lounging animal, nor a debt-incurring animal, nor a tax-paying animal, nor a printing animal, nor a puffing animal, but a _developing animal_.
English Satires Various 1885
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It is from the superficial covering, the thin crust with which the earth is covered, composed of the remains of former existence, of the breccia of exhausted nature, that animal creation derives its support; and it is the grand axiom of the universe, that _animal life can only be supported by animal remains_.
The King's Own Frederick Marryat 1820
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Oh yeah the old human vs animal argument (humans are animals btw, scientists recognize this so we all should), i suppose you are the sort that says * its only an animal*.
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"_hearing the animal speak within the animal_" (if I may so put it), rather than its "human connexion."
Lola or, The Thought and Speech of Animals Henny Kindermann
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The non]violent religious practices of Vaishnavs (who did not practice animal sacrifice, for example) could meet the violence associated with Shakta mother]worship (animal]worship was almost mandatory in Shakta festivals) under the aegis of a new Hindu "wartime" philosophy.
Archive 2008-06-01 Tusar N Mohapatra 2008
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The non]violent religious practices of Vaishnavs (who did not practice animal sacrifice, for example) could meet the violence associated with Shakta mother]worship (animal]worship was almost mandatory in Shakta festivals) under the aegis of a new Hindu "wartime" philosophy.
It would not be fair to consider Sri Aurobindo complicit in the creation of Hindu nationalism Tusar N Mohapatra 2008
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We propose the concept of “animal capital” to acknowledge animals’ contributions beyond material value, essential for human survival.
Animal capital: a new way to define human-animal bond in view of global changes and food insecurity Cédric Sueur 2024
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August 1, 2010