Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to carnivores.
- adjective Flesh-eating or predatory.
- adjective Characterized by destructive or predatory behavior or instincts.
- adjective Botany Capable of trapping insects or other small organisms and absorbing nutrients from them.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Eating or feeding on flesh; subsisting upon animal food: applied to animals which naturally seek animal food, as the lion, tiger, dog, wolf, etc.; also to plants which feed upon insects, as the Drosera or sundew, the Pinguicula, the Dionæa or Venus's flytrap, and the various pitcher-bearing plants.
- Specifically— In mammalogy, of or pertaining to the Carnivora; carnivoral; carnassial. In entomology, of or pertaining to the Carnivora; adephagous; predatory.
- In odontography, trenchant; sectorial; carnassial: as, a carnivorous molar or premolar.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Eating or feeding on flesh. The term is applied: (a) to animals which naturally seek flesh for food, as the tiger, dog, etc.; (b) to plants which are supposed to absorb animal food; (c) to substances which destroy animal tissue, as caustics.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, or relating to
carnivores , or thetaxonomic order Canivora. - adjective
Predatory orflesh eating . - adjective botany
Insectivorous :capable oftrapping insects andabsorbing nutrient from them.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective relating to or characteristic of carnivores
- adjective (used of plants as well as animals) feeding on animals
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As recently as the 1990s, Barnes & Noble was known as a carnivorous competitor with the power to wipe out independent bookstores with its steeply discounted books and sprawling stores where customers could sip coffee and read in plush chairs.
Barnes & Noble Seeks Next Chapter Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg 2012
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Wish they had more veg options for those who do not indulge in carnivorous activities.
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“Old Mayan texts refer to carnivorous nocturnal monkeys of a strange blue hue,” says Dr. Francisco Morelia, chair of the anthropology department at the College of San Miguel.
The Lady Matador’s Hotel Cristina García 2010
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I have also thought about the lifestyle of Brontornis, and it is really highly unrealsitic that it was a full-time scavenger (for some strange reason many paleontologists seem to have the affinity to label carnivorous animals as scavengers if they have "too strong" or "too weak" jaws, strange teeth or other unusual features, but this is another topic ...), but a predator.
More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006
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ALL Cascadian Tree Octopi are carnivorous, which is one reason Gore-Tex was developed; their suckers are unable to stick to the surface.
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I have a suspicion that the so-called carnivorous animals were all at some remote time nut eaters; the so-called carnivorous teeth would be as useful in tearing off the husks of cocoanuts and similar fruits, as for tearing and eating flesh.
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Sarracenia belong to a whole creepy category of plants that botanists call carnivorous.
Thestar.com - Home Page Sonia Day 2011
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LeBlond, co-author of the book "Cadborosaurus: Survivor from the Deep," said the animal is "the least unlike a plesiosaur," referring to carnivorous marine reptiles thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
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The beautifully preserved remains include molluscs, sea urchins and arthropods, alongside much larger animals that occupied the top of the food chain, such as carnivorous fish and the first icthyosaurs, predatory marine reptiles that grew to four metres long.
Fossil hunters uncover complete 252m year-old underwater world 2010
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I remember finding him comforting, though I didn't like the vaguely triangular patch on the ceiling in the corner; it looked like some kind of carnivorous squid, waiting to swoop down.
Archive 2008-01-01 Heather McDougal 2008
mollusque commented on the word carnivorous
Think of how you would paint this cat: with her insides exposed, the delicate rib cage curved like a ring's setting around a bloody gem of carnivorous love.
--Barbara Kingsolver, 2009, The Lacuna, p. 275
February 5, 2010
bilby commented on the word carnivorous
Anagram of coronavirus.
June 23, 2022