testudinate

te•stud•in•ate (te-STOOD-n-it, -eyt) 

Definition:
adj
1. of, like or relating to a tortoise or turtle
2. formed like the carapace of a tortoise; arched; vaulted

n
3. a turtle
4. any member of the order Testudines, comprising turtles, tortoises, and terrapins

Origin:
1720–30; from Latin testudinatus “arched, vaulted”, from testudo “tortoise” from testa "shell" + -atus

Related:
Synonyms: chelonian, testudinal, testudinarious
Related Words: testudinal, testudinarious, turtle, tortoise

Sentence Examples:
• But enough, and, for the reader who is not zoologically disposed, more than enough. He has been led, if he has condescended to follow, from the land to the marsh, from the marsh to the lake, stream, and river, the residences of the various modifications of testudinate life. A short repose should be placed at his disposal, before, in the course of our narrative, he follows these great rivers of the old and new world, in which the fresh water tortoises disport themselves, into that ocean in which all rivers, great and small, are lost. -The Living age, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell

• We have been taught, and truly with respect to the higher grade of animals, that in the blood is the life. But in the case of the testudinate which is to furnish forth the soup, the calipee, the steaks, the currie, for which and upon which aldermen live, any one who wishes to descend into the abysses from which that ambrosial feast is furnished forth, may find a headless trunk suspended neck downward that it may bleed more freely, and the head placed bill uppermost on a cold plate for the resting place of the severed neck.  -Eclectic magazine, John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell

•    No little testudinate triflers are these,
    Unmindful of doom unforbodingly playing.
  The cook's charming manners are likely to please,
  But the flash of that knife Snapping Turtles might freeze,
        'Tis so strangely suggestive of--slaying.
-Punch, or the London Charivari

Sources: Dictionary.com, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary

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