dormouse
Americannoun
-
dormice
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dormouse
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English dormowse, dormoise; etymology obscure; perhaps Anglo-French derivative of Old French dormir “to sleep,” with final syllable reanalyzed as mouse, but no such Anglo-French word is known; see dormant, mouse
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:
Each 20g dormouse had a 10-minute check-up with wildlife vets from ZSL's Institute of Zoology in central London.
From BBC ● May 19, 2024
To test this, they took skeletal muscle samples from two small hibernators -- the Thirteen-lined ground squirrel and the Garden dormouse -- and two large hibernators -- the American black bear and brown bear.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
The squat, dinosaur-eating mammal Repenomamus was about the size of a badger, the early placental mammal Eomaia was about the size of a shrew, and the spiky Spinolestes was about as tiny as a dormouse.
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2023
Some people can also echolocate by clicking their tongues, a behavior shared by only a few other animals, including tenrecs, a shrew-like animal from Madagascar, and the Vietnamese pygmy dormouse, which is effectively blind.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 3, 2021
The dormouse watched Cluny’s eye rove lazily from his family to the blazing inferno.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
The country is now embarking on an expensive building boom, sparking outrage at unsightly transmission towers and the potential harm to bats, dormice and other local wildlife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
Suffolk County Council demanded information about the impact on hedgerows, which are home to bats and dormice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
Mr Gow, who is working to rewild 150 acres of his own land near Launceston, said he had also legally reintroduced species including beavers, dormice, 25,000 water voles and glow-worms.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025
Creatures, including bats, dormice and great crested newts, have also been moved.
From BBC ● Jan. 5, 2025
An anguished moan arose from the dormice lying in the ditch.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
