taxidermy

American  

[tak-si-dur-mee] / ˈtæk sɪˌdɜr mi /

noun

1. the art of preparing and preserving the skins of animals and of stuffing and mounting them in lifelike form.

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taxidermy British  

/ ˈtæksɪˌdɜːmɪ /

noun

1. the art or process of preparing, stuffing, and mounting animal skins so that they have a lifelike appearance

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Other Word Forms

• taxidermal adjective
• taxidermic adjective
• taxidermist noun

Etymology

Origin of taxidermy

1810–20; taxi- + Greek dérm ( a ) skin ( derma ¹ ) + -y ³

Example Sentences

Last year, Noah Aussems decided to close his Kips Bay sports bar Sucker Punch and partner with Chris Reda to renovate the space, importing wood from Kentucky and taxidermy from Indiana.

From The Wall Street Journal

It’s the difference between seeing a living animal and taxidermy.

From Los Angeles Times

It was only a trick of the light, of course, but the lips of the taxidermy tiger seemed to pull back into a snarl.

From Literature

The glass eyes of Lord Fredrick’s taxidermy collection stared at her accusingly: the bear, the moose, the stags, the foxes, the many varieties of birds, and, of course, the elk.

From Literature

Charles Darwin is a household name, but how many people know that the world’s most famous naturalist learned taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a formerly enslaved Black Briton who owned a bird-stuffing shop in Edinburgh, Scotland?

From Los Angeles Times