different between lizard vs lizardly

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

English

Etymology

lizard +? -ly

Adjective

lizardly (comparative more lizardly, superlative most lizardly)

1. Reminiscent of or similar to a lizard.
   • 2009, James W. Roman, Bigger Than Blockbusters: Movies that Defined America (page 258)

     […] the eyes of replicants creator Dr. Eldon Tyrell are magnified by large lenses in his glasses, giving him a lizardly look.

2. Pertaining to lizards; lizard-related.
   • 1988, B. W. Clough, The Name of the Sun (volume 3, page 126)

     Only the taloned fingers at the "shoulders" of their wings showed the lizardly blood, and their orange bills full of sharp fishy teeth.

   • 1989, Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine, Last Chance to See

     But whatever malign emotions we tried to pin on to the lizard, we knew that they weren't the lizard's emotions at all, only ours. The lizard was simply going about its lizardly business in a simple, straightforward lizardly way.

Synonyms

• (similar to a lizard): lizardlike, lacertilian