tortoise
Pluraltortoises
- 1A land-dwelling reptile whose body is enclosed in a shell of carapace and plastron, able to withdraw its head and legs partially inside for protection from predators.
The tortoise withdrew into its shell as our footsteps approached.
Giant tortoises on the island can live well over a century.
Note
How wide the word reaches depends on where it is spoken. In Canada and the US, tortoise usually names only the family Testudinidae. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India it can cover the whole order Testudines. In every variety it means the land-dweller, so when precision matters, check which grouping a writer has in mind.
- 2A wheeled protective shelter under which attacking soldiers advanced toward fortifications, shielding them from missiles thrown down from above.
Sappers sheltered beneath the tortoise while they undermined the city wall.
The defenders poured boiling pitch onto the tortoise creeping toward the gate.
Note
A siege-warfare word for the wheeled shed that besiegers also called a cat. The two names are interchangeable, so an account of an assault may switch between them. The image explains the name. A low, roofed body creeps toward the wall while the sappers and ram crews inside work under cover, much as the reptile shelters beneath its shell.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English tortuse (also tortuce, tortuge), from Medieval Latin tortuca, of uncertain origin. It may derive from Late Latin tartarūcha, from Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartaroûkhos, 'holder of Tartarus, the land of the dead'), since tortoises and turtles were once thought to come from the underworld; alternatively it may come from Latin tortus ('twisted'). The Modern English spelling tortoise may have been influenced by porpoise, and the word displaced native Old English byrdling.