ALLIGATOR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Alligator

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/ˈæləgˌeɪtər/ Listen

noun

Alligator n.

1.

(Zool.) A large carnivorous reptile of the Crocodile family, peculiar to America. It has a shorter and broader snout than the crocodile, and the large teeth of the lower jaw shut into pits in the upper jaw, which has no marginal notches. Besides the common species of the southern United States, there are allied species in South America.

2.

(Mech.) Any machine with strong jaws, one of which opens like the movable jaw of an alligator; as,

(a)

(Metal Working) A form of squeezer for the puddle ball;

(b)

(Mining) A rock breaker;

(c)

(Printing) A kind of job press, called also alligator press.

Alligator apple (Bot.), the fruit of the Anona palustris, a West Indian tree. It is said to be narcotic in its properties.

Alligator fish (Zool.), a marine fish of northwestern America (Podothecus acipenserinus).

Alligator gar (Zool.), one of the gar pikes (Lepidosteus spatula) found in the southern rivers of the United States. The name is also applied to other species of gar pikes.

Alligator pear (Bot.), a corruption of Avocado pear. See Avocado.

Alligator snapper, Alligator tortoise, Alligator turtle (Zool.), a very large and voracious turtle (Macrochelys lacertina) inhabiting the rivers of the southern United States. It sometimes reaches the weight of two hundred pounds. Unlike the common snapping turtle, to which the name is sometimes erroneously applied, it has a scaly head and many small scales beneath the tail. This name is sometimes given to other turtles, as to species of Trionyx.

Alligator wood, the timber of a tree of the West Indies (Guarea Swartzii).

verb

alligator v. i. & v. t. To form shallow cracks in a reticulated pattern on the surface, or in a coating on the surface, of an object.

See images of 'Alligator'

Etymology of 'Alligator'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alligator" Quotes from Famous Books

... up to the front of the American Hotel, on Hanover Street, Boston, and stopped. The door flew open, and out stepped a smartly dressed young man, wearing russet shoes, a light-colored box coat and a brown Alpine hat. He carried a handsome alligator-skin traveling bag in ...

— Frank Merriwell's Cruise • Burt L. Standish

... effects of corroborees are sometimes huge sheets of bark fastened on to poles; these sheets of bark are painted in different designs and colours, something like Moorish embroideries. Sometimes there is a huge imitation of an alligator made of logs plastered over with earth and painted in stripes of different colours, a piece of wood cut open stuck in at one end as a gaping mouth. This alligator corroboree is generally indicative of a Boorah, or initiation ceremony, being near at hand. ...

— The Euahlayi Tribe - A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia • K. Langloh Parker

... give you the true account, in writing, of those right and left shots of mine at the two lions, the crocodile, and the eagle. The brutes are stuffed now, in the hall at home—the lions each on a pedestal, and the alligator on the floor with the eagle in his jaws—much as they were when I settled them and saved the Stranger. All sorts of stories have got into the papers about the business, which was simple enough; so, though no hand with a pen, I may as well write ...

— Old Friends - Essays in Epistolary Parody • Andrew Lang

... expressive gesture, scornful and abrupt, with which she neglected them might have been terribly wounding to a young man more sensitive than Dayson. But Dayson, in his self-sufficient, good-natured mediocrity, had the hide of an alligator. He even judged her movement quite natural, for he was a flunkey born. Hilda gazed at her master with anxiety as he deposited his black walking-stick in the corner behind the door and loosed his white muffler ...

— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett

... curious lizard found in our Western Territories and in Mexico, and variously known as the "Montana alligator," "the Gila monster," and "the Mexican ...

— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XV., No. 388, June 9, 1883 • Various

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