polliwog
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of polliwog
First recorded in 1400–50; variant of polliwig, earlier polwigge, late Middle English polwygle; poll 1, wiggle
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.
Among the masses of fauna, the pigeon occupies a rung on the human scale of fuzzy affection somewhere between a common garden slug and the lesser polliwog.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 14, 2021
The Governor General of the Philippine Islands was dealt with as a polliwog, went ashore a short time later to be regaled in the palace of the Dutch Viceroy in Batavia.
From Time Magazine Archive
He envisioned the snug Aircar as every man's airplane, affectionately called it his polliwog.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ancestors of the newt, the polliwog, the lizard and the water snake.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of the latter truth we may judge from the fact that if one of those cells should be injured, only one-half a polliwog would result,—either a head or a tail half.
From The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year by Beebe, William
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.
