mammal
[mam-uh l]
- any vertebrate of the class Mammalia, having the body more or less covered with hair, nourishing the young with milk from the mammary glands, and, with the exception of the egg-laying monotremes, giving birth to live young.
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Origin of mammal
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for mammal
Contemporary Examples
The term “gestation,” for instance, is derived from the Latin verb gestāre, used to describe a mammal carrying a burden.
If you like mammal species from the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue")...
The boy screamed a deep guttural scream that did not seem to belong to any mammal I knew of.
But along with whales, their mammal cousins, dolphins may face more danger over the long term below the surface of the sea.
Historical Examples
Also its bones were not those of a mammal, but the cartilagenous bones of a fish.
Inside the body of the mammal this is impossible, because the air is too far away.
The Meaning of EvolutionSamuel Christian Schmucker
So the allantois of the reptile has become the placenta of the mammal.
The Meaning of EvolutionSamuel Christian Schmucker
That bolt, which would have shocked a mammal into insensibility, only slowed the Throg.
Storm Over WarlockAndre Norton
It has thus the power of grasping a tree which no other mammal possesses.
The Western WorldW.H.G. Kingston
mammal
- any animal of the Mammalia, a large class of warm-blooded vertebrates having mammary glands in the female, a thoracic diaphragm, and a four-chambered heart. The class includes the whales, carnivores, rodents, bats, primates, etc
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Word Origin
C19: via New Latin from Latin mamma breast
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for mammal
n.
1826, anglicized form of Modern Latin Mammalia (1773), coined 1758 by Linnaeus for the class of mammals, from neuter plural of Late Latin mammalis "of the breast," from Latin mamma "breast," perhaps cognate with mamma.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
mammal
[măm′əl]
- Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, whose young feed on milk that is produced by the mother's mammary glands. Unlike other vertebrates, mammals have a diaphragm that separates the heart and lungs from the other internal organs, red blood cells that lack a nucleus, and usually hair or fur. All mammals but the monotremes bear live young. Mammals include rodents, cats, dogs, ungulates, cetaceans, and apes.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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