onager
Americannoun
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Also called Asiatic wild ass. a near threatened wild ass, Equus hemionus, inhabiting southwestern Asia and formerly distributed also through the Middle East and eastern Asia: the onager is one of the fastest mammals, able to run, and sometimes exceed, 40 miles (64 km) per hour, and, unlike most donkeys and horses, it has never been domesticated.
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an ancient and medieval military catapult for throwing stones.
noun
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a Persian variety of the wild ass, Equus hemionus Compare kiang
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an ancient war engine for hurling stones
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of onager
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Latin onager, onagrus “wild ass,” Late Latin also “catapult, siege machine for throwing projectiles,” from Greek ónagros “wild ass,” Late Greek also “catapult, siege engine,” alteration of ónos ágrios “ass of the fields, wild ass”; see acre
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:
The Cheshire attraction said the Persian onager was born to mum Azita after a year-long pregnancy.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2024
Is it any wonder Roman soldiers applied the name onager to the mechanical catapult they used for besieging walled compounds?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2016
Aware that Newton Minow got a lot of acreage simply by calling TV a "vast wasteland," Goldwater rared back his onager at a Greek-American dinner in Chicago and let the rocks fly at U.S. television.
From Time Magazine Archive
‘But onager is a stupid name. They should’ve called them Valdezapults.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
They shuffled across the hillside towards the next onager.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Conservationists at the zoo said there are less than 600 surviving wild onagers, but the birth "of the leggy youngster" could help safeguard the species from extinction.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2024
We know from Sumerian and later depictions that onagers were regularly hunted, as well as captured and hybridized with donkeys and horses.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
‘The Acropolis is ringed with great siege weapons — onagers.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
‘Artemis knows a lot about missile weapons. She told us Octavian has ordered some . . . surprises for Camp Half-Blood. He’s used most of the legion’s treasure to purchase Cyclopes-built onagers.’
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
The onagers were arrayed behind them in a loose semicircle at three-hundred-yard intervals.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
The worst experience came after the purchase from the Iranian government of several pairs of onagri.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
