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bilby

American  
[bil-bee] / ˈbɪl bi /
Or bilbi

noun

  • bilbies
    plural
  1. rabbit-eared bandicoot.


bilby British  
/ ˈbɪlbɪ /

noun

  1. Also called: rabbit bandicoot, dalgyte. a burrowing marsupial of the genus Macrotis of Australia having long pointed ears and grey fur

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of bilby

First recorded in 1900–05; from Yuwaalaraay (an Australian Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales) bilbi


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"In Australia, feral cats were most likely the principal cause of extinction of the pig-footed bandicoot, central hare-wallaby, desert bandicoot, lesser bilby and long-tailed hopping-mouse, amongst others."

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2023

Then, the researchers monitored bilby survival for 40 days.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

It’s a dead greater bilby, or at least what is left of one.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

The greater bilby, a ground-dwelling marsupial, handles the heat by going, well, down under.

From National Geographic ● Aug. 5, 2017

As the usually quite staid Washington Post pointed out, "This one in particular is from that amazing day where George was thrilled to meet his namesake bilby at a local zoo."

From The Guardian ● Jul. 11, 2014

From bilbies with their giant heat-releasing ears to great thorny devils - which use their spikes to channel water into their mouths - many have developed quirks which help them cope in the harsh environment.

From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2024

Both species became warier; cat-exposed bilbies, for example, grew slower to emerge from artificial burrows and tended to avoid unprotected areas after emerging.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

The fate of the tagged animals revealed the advantage of prior exposure to cats: Cats killed 71% of the naïve bilbies but just a third of the savvy animals.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

Yet in as little as 18 months, the researchers noticed behavioral changes in the animals living with cats, which included bilbies and burrowing bettongs, a marsupial also known as a rat kangaroo.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

In one early test, “We actually chased wild bilbies and rubbed them with a dead cat” to see whether that would help them avoid the predators in the wild, Moseby recalls.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2019

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