guinea pig

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noun

a short-eared, tailless rodent of the genus Cavia, usually white, black, and tawny, commonly regarded as the domesticated form of one of the South American wild species of cavy: often used in scientific experiments or kept as a pet.

Informal. the subject of any sort of experiment.

Origin of guinea pig

First recorded in 1655–65

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for guinea pig

The guinea-pig, when full-grown, is not much bigger than a large rat.
The Nursery, April 1881, Vol. XXIX|Various
In the tenth week the bacillus present when in pure culture killed a guinea-pig in thirty-six hours.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine|Austin Malley
Wilhelm Bischoff of Munich: works on the history of the development of the rabbit, dog, guinea-pig, roe-deer.
The Last Link|Ernst Haeckel
An' when Guinea-pig go, Rabbit ask Guinea-pig to go an hunting.
Jamaican Song and Story|Walter Jekyll

Kill the second guinea-pig at the end of the second week and examine carefully.
The Elements of Bacteriological Technique|John William Henry Eyre

British Dictionary definitions for guinea pig

guinea pig

noun

a domesticated cavy, probably descended from Cavia porcellus, commonly kept as a pet and used in scientific experiments

a person or thing used for experimentation

Word Origin for guinea pig

C17: origin uncertain: perhaps from old use of the name Guinea to mean any remote unknown land

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

Word Origin and History for guinea pig

1660s, native to South America and perhaps so called either because it was first brought back to Britain aboard Guinea-men, ships that plied the triangle trade between England, Guinea, and South America [Barnhart, Klein]; or from confusion of Guinea (q.v.) with the South American region of Guyana (but OED is against this). In the extended sense of "one subjected to an experiment" it is first recorded 1920, because they were commonly used in vivisection experiments.

Medicine definitions for guinea pig

guinea pig

[gĭn′ē]

n.

Any of various small, short-eared domesticated rodents of the genus Cavia, having variously colored hair and no visible tail. They are widely kept as pets and often used as experimental animals.