testudinate

[te-stood-n-it, -eyt, -styood-]

adjective

1. belonging or pertaining to the reptilian order Testudines, comprising turtles, tortoises, and terrapins.

   Of all the testudinate species that were once abundant here, the snapping turtle is the only one that has not disappeared or become endangered.

2. similar to, resembling, or representing turtles, tortoises, or terrapins.

   We refer to this pattern as “testudinate” because the figures within alternate stripes are clearly turtlelike.

3. Architecture.,  formed like the carapace of a tortoise; arched; vaulted.

   Her testudinate doorways and ceilings have the feel of something from antiquity, but they integrate well with her otherwise modern designs.

noun

1. a turtle, tortoise, or terrapin.

Word History and Origins

Origin of testudinate¹

First recorded in 1720–30; from Latin testūdinātus “arched, vaulted”; testudo, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Plastron, plas′tron, n. a breast-plate: a detachable part of a woman's dress hanging from the throat to the waist: a man's shirt-bosom: a fencer's wadded shield of leather worn on the breast: the ventral part of the shell of a chelonian or testudinate, the lower shell of a turtle or tortoise: the sternum with costal cartilages attached.—adj.

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After breakfast, which was graced by the turtle eggs which Agnes had helped discover, the whole party gathered about the three sprawling turtles, which the lawyer called “testudinate reptiles.”

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Testudinate -us: resembling the shell of a tortoise.

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No little testudinate triflers are these, Unmindful of doom unforbodingly playing.

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There are five different styles of cavaedium, termed according to their construction as follows: Tuscan, Corinthian, tetrastyle, displuviate, and testudinate.

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