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taxidermist

American  
[tak-si-durm-ist] / ˈtæk sɪˌdɜrm ɪst /

noun

  1. a person who practices taxidermy, for work or as a hobby.


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.

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Vocabulary lists containing taxidermist

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.

Entrust their preservation to a novice or lower-cost taxidermist, and you risk losing some of the elements that made your pet who they were.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025

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

It’s made up of tidy homes with a few small businesses — a bakery, a florist, a café, a supermarket, a taxidermist — most of them in brick storefronts in the small downtown area.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 5, 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

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