ALLIGATOR • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... man-of-war to enter an American port after the Revolution was the Alligator, Capt. Isaac Coffin. He entered the harbor of Boston on the 2d day of May, 1791. He saluted the American flag on the fort by firing thirteen guns, which was returned. A full report of this occurrence is to be found in the Columbian Sentinel of May ...

— The True Story of the American Flag • John H. Fow

... lizard," replied Hassib, "so your learned white men say; 'alligator lizard' I heard one call it. But it is really a thing that comes out of an ...

— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough

... light in his bedroom, Northwood examined the wallet. It was made of alligator skin, clasped with a gold signet that bore the initial M. The first pocket was empty; the second yielded an object that sent a warm ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science February 1930 • Various

... the boats were despatched up the river, but as the ebb-tide ran until after four o'clock it was late at night before they reached the cascade, having experienced some delay by running upon the sandbanks, which, above Alligator Island, are very numerous and form a narrow winding channel of not more than twelve feet deep; these banks are dry at low-water, and are composed of a yellow quartzose sand. At midnight, as soon as the launch and cutter were loaded, for it did not take more than half an hour ...

— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... informed by several of the gravest and most trustworthy gentlemen of several different localities on the mountains that there really is a creature infesting these streams supposed by them to be a young alligator, reaching a length of twelve inches, and doubtless subsisting on fish. An alligator as a mountain-reptile had not entered into our conception: can these voracious saurians, playing in the alpine affluents of the Mississippi, possibly ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873. • Various

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