taxidermist
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Explanation
Those creepy stuffed and mounted raccoons in your grandparents' house were crafted by a taxidermist, a person who is skilled at making lifelike displays from the bodies of dead animals. Taxidermy is the art of preserving, arranging, and displaying animal bodies so they can be hung on hunters' walls or set up in natural history museums. A person who practices taxidermy is called a taxidermist. Some taxidermists are trained professionals and others do it as a hobby, preserving the animal's skin, shaping it on a wooden or wire form, and adding specially made glass eyes.
Vocabulary lists containing taxidermist
The Bean Trees
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The Sun Also Rises
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Louisiana’s Way Home
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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 150kg female bear, nicknamed Caramelles, has since been preserved by a taxidermist and is on display at the Toulouse Natural History Museum.
From BBC ● May 6, 2025
Roell said the DNR received genetic test results from two laboratories late last week confirming that it was a gray wolf and the agency seized the carcass from the taxidermist earlier this week.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2024
Also assisting in the field analyses were co-authors Mike Hall, a geologist at Monash University, and Peter Swinkels, a taxidermist at Museums Victoria Research Institute and an expert at preserving specimens through moldings and casts.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2023
The body was already at the taxidermist, so Mr. Butera hustled over.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
What lunatic had decided that when people died you should hire a taxidermist to fix them up for one final look?
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
Skilled taxidermists can do a good business in this parish of 23,000 people preparing all the mounted fish and deer heads that hang on walls in residents’ homes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
Many of the outsiders who made the heads were mortuary technicians, taxidermists and medical doctors.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2021
“There’s taxidermists, and then there’s artists. I say I’m more of an artist-taxidermist.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 10, 2021
Most taxidermists can’t, or won’t, handle pets because of the pressure to get it right and the lack of pre-made forms for each kind of animal.
From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2019
His head was still intact and his two glass eyes stared up at her with the helpless look that is the specialty of taxidermists.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
