different between gerbil vs lizard

English

Alternative forms

• gerbille (dated)
• (verb): gerble
• jerbil (dated)

Etymology

French gerbille, from Latin gerbo, from Arabic ????????? (jarb??) or ????????? (yarb??, “jerboa”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d??bl?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d???bl?/
• Homophone: Dyirbal
• Rhymes: -??(?)b?l

Noun

gerbil (plural gerbils)

1. One of several species of small, jumping, murine rodents, of the genus Gerbillus and certain other genera in subfamily Gerbillinae, with leaping powers resembling the jerboa, native to Africa, India, and Southern Europe.

Translations

Verb

gerbil (third-person singular simple present gerbils, present participle gerbilling or gerbiling, simple past and past participle gerbilled or gerbiled)

1. (intransitive) To rotate inside a monowheel or similar apparatus due to sudden acceleration or braking.
2. (intransitive, slang) To insert a small animal into one's rectum (a sexual practice in urban myth).

See also

• guinea pig
• hamster
• jerboa
• jird
• mouse
• rat

Anagrams

• Bigler, Bilger, Gibler

English

Etymology

From Middle English lesarde, lisarde, from Anglo-Norman lusard, from Old French lesard (compare French lézard), from Latin lacertus. Displaced native Middle English aske (“newt, lizard”); see ask.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?z.?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?z.?d/

Noun

lizard (plural lizards)

1. Any reptile of the order Squamata that is not a snake, usually having four legs, external ear openings, movable eyelids and a long slender body and tail.
2. (chiefly in attributive use) Lizard skin, the skin of these reptiles.
   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Proof”, The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.

     Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby / Silver foil to trim your wedding gown

3. (colloquial) An unctuous person.
4. (colloquial) A coward.
5. (rock paper scissors) A hand forming a "D" shape with the tips of the thumb and index finger touching (a handshape resembling a lizard), that beats paper and Spock and loses to rock and scissors in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
6. (in compounds) A person who idly spends time in a specified place, especially a promiscuous female.

   lounge lizard; lot lizard; beach lizard; truck stop lizard

Derived terms

Translations

Middle English

Noun

lizard

1. Alternative form of lesarde