chinchilla

American  

[chin-chil-uh] / tʃɪnˈtʃɪl ə /

noun

• chinchillas
  plural

1. a small, South American rodent, Chinchilla laniger, raised for its soft, silvery gray fur: now rare in the wild.

2. the fur of this animal.

3. something, as a coat or jacket, made of chinchilla fur.

   a floor-length chinchilla.

4. a thick, napped, woolen fabric for coats.

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chinchilla British  

/ tʃɪnˈtʃɪlə /

noun

1. a small gregarious hystricomorph rodent, Chinchilla laniger, inhabiting mountainous regions of South America: family Chinchillidae. It has a stocky body and is bred in captivity for its soft silvery grey fur

2. the highly valued fur of this animal

3. any of several long-tailed rodents of the genus Lagidium, having coarse poor quality fur

4. a breed of rabbit with soft silver-grey fur

5. a thick napped woollen cloth used for coats

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• chinchillas
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of chinchilla

1595–1605; < Spanish, perhaps, equivalent to chinche chinch + -illa < Latin -illa diminutive suffix

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chinchilla chinchillas

“The day after she arrived,” Ms. Smith wrote, “the fur coats, including one sable, one chinchilla and a mink, were missing,” apparently stolen from the actress’s hotel room.

From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

The scene captured on video is among the findings from an undercover investigation into conditions on Romania’s chinchilla fur farms, carried out last year by the animal welfare charity Humane Society International.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2022

TL:DR: do not lick your chinchilla while you have monkeypox.

From The Verge ● Aug. 5, 2022

In this case, the wild- type allele is dominant over all the others, chinchilla is incompletely dominant over Himalayan and albino, and Himalayan is dominant over albino.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

I’m early, as usual—partly to avoid bumping into Eddie in the hallway but also because I was hoping to hold Charles the chinchilla for a couple of minutes before class starts.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

They were the first rodents to ever set foot on the continent, where they evolved into well-known groups like guinea pigs, chinchillas, capybaras and porcupines.

From Science Daily ● May 28, 2024

“You weren’t just dealing with moving 400 chinchillas, which is not as hard, because they’re all one species so you can find new homes more easily for them,” Peet said.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2022

Over decades, the courts have ruled that securities law applies to a wide variety of financial products, including contracts for the sale of chinchillas.

From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022

Hong Kong has also been testing rabbits and chinchillas but only the hamsters were positive.

From Reuters ● Jan. 21, 2022

Nonetheless, the chinchillas came down with a disease peculiar to rats, and they were all dead within two weeks.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

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