Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An elongated pointed tooth, usually one of a pair, extending outside of the mouth in certain animals such as the walrus, elephant, or wild boar.
- noun A long projecting tooth or toothlike part.
- transitive & intransitive verb To gore or dig with the tusks or a tusk.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To gore with the tusks.
- To move, turn, or thrust with the tusks.
- To gnash the teeth, as a boar; show the tusks.
- noun A tuft; a bush.
- noun A fish: same as
torsk . - noun A long pointed tooth; especially, a tooth long enough to protrude from the lips when the mouth is closed.
- noun A sharp projecting point resembling in some degree a tusk or tooth of an animal.
- noun In locks, a sharp projecting point or claw which forms a means of attachment or engagement.
- noun In carpentry, a bevel shoulder on a tenon to give it additional strength.
- noun A tooth-shell. See
Dentaliidæ , and cut undertooth-shell .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Same as
torsk . - noun (Zoöl.) One of the elongated incisor or canine teeth of the wild boar, elephant, etc.; hence, any long, protruding tooth.
- noun (Zoöl.) A toothshell, or Dentalium; -- called also
tusk-shell . - noun (Carp.) A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets. Thus, in the illustration, a is the
tusk , and each of the several parts, or offsets, is called atooth . - intransitive verb obsolete To bare or gnash the teeth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One of a pair of elongated pointed
teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such aswalrus ,elephant orwild boar . - noun A small projection on a (tusk)
tenon . - verb To
dig up using a tusk, as boars do. - verb obsolete To
bare orgnash theteeth .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
- noun a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog
- verb remove the tusks of animals
- verb stab or pierce with a horn or tusk
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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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Though seemingly rigid and hard, the tusk is like a membrane with an extremely sensitive surface, capable of detecting changes in water temperature, pressure, and particle gradients.
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Now that my tusk is ugly too, I can't sleep nights just thinking about how completely ugly I am, and I weep all the time.
My Father's Dragon 1948
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The departure of this tusk is really a great relief to me, for it had come down from its socket till I looked like one of the three fabled cabirii of Samothrace, who had got and kept possession of the solitary tooth they owned amongst them, and it shook and rattled in my mouth, so that I felt as if I was talking to a castanet accompaniment.
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The tusk is the lower housed area that allows a major cross section of the beam to bear the weight at the joint.
BUILDING THE TIMBER FRAME HOUSE Tedd Benson 1980
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The tusk is the lower housed area that allows a major cross section of the beam to bear the weight at the joint.
BUILDING THE TIMBER FRAME HOUSE Tedd Benson 1980
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The tusk is the lower housed area that allows a major cross section of the beam to bear the weight at the joint.
BUILDING THE TIMBER FRAME HOUSE Tedd Benson 1980
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The tusk is the lower housed area that allows a major cross section of the beam to bear the weight at the joint.
BUILDING THE TIMBER FRAME HOUSE Tedd Benson 1980
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The ring on his tusk was his own invention, as a means to
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals A Book of Personal Observations William Temple Hornaday 1895
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It happened that just at that time, the annual period for the celebration of the festival of Adonis, according to the old fashion, came round; the story being, as the poets relate, that Adonis had been loved by Venus, and slain by a boar's tusk, which is an emblem of the fruits of the earth being cut down in their prime.
The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens Ammianus Marcellinus 1851
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Feranec believes that the Warren Mastodon tusk, which is 8 feet, 8 inches long, is the longest one uncovered to date.
PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009
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