# turtle
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɜːtl̩/
* (General American) enPR: tûrʹtəl, IPA: /ˈtɝtl̩/, [ˈtʰɝɾɫ̩]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)təl

### Etymology 1

Modification of Middle English tortou, tortu, from Old French tortüe (under the influence of Middle English turtel, turtur (“turtledove”), see Etymology 2 below), from Medieval Latin tortuca (compare Spanish tortuga), the same source of tortoise (see there for more). Displaced native Old English byrdling.

#### Alternative forms

* tortle (obsolete)

#### Noun

turtle (plural turtles)
* (zoology, US, Canada) Any land or marine reptile of the order Testudines, characterised by a protective shell enclosing its body. See also tortoise.
    Synonyms: (obsolete) shellpad, (archaic) shield-toad
* (zoology, Australia, British, specifically) A marine reptile of that order.
    Synonym: sea turtle
* (military, historical) An Ancient Roman attack method, where the shields held by the soldiers hide them, not only left, right, front and back, but also from above.
    Synonym: testudo
* (computing) A type of robot having a domed case (and so resembling the reptile), used in education, especially for making line drawings by means of a computer program.
* (computing) An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
** 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style: Symbolic computing:Depending on which version of Logo you have, the turtle may look like an actual animal with a head and four legs or — as in Berkeley Logo — it may be represented as a triangle.
* (printing, historical) The curved plate in which the form is held in a type-revolving cylinder press.
* (computing theory) A small element towards the end of a list of items to be bubble sorted, and thus tending to take a long time to be swapped into its correct position. Compare rabbit.
* (dance) A breakdancing move consisting of a float during which the dancer's weight shifts from one hand to the other, producing rotation or a circular "walk".
* (television) A low stand for a lamp etc.
** Alan Bermingham, Location Lighting for Television
    Using an appropriate turtle allows the full range of pan and tilt adjustments on the luminaire and avoids possible heat damage to floor coverings.

##### Derived terms

* African forest turtle (Pelusios gabonensis)
* African helmeted turtle (Pelomedusa subruta)
* African sideneck turtle (Pelomedusa subruta)
* African softshell turtle (Trionyx triunguis)
* Afro-American sideneck turtle (Pelomedusa subruta)
* Alabama map turtle (Graptemys pulchra)
* Alabama red-bellied turtle (Pseudemys alabamensis)
* Alabama turtle (Pseudemys alabamensis)
* Alamos mud turtle (Kinosternon alamosae)
* alligator turtle, alligator-turtle (Macrochelys lacertina)
* American Turtle
* Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles
* Arakan forest turtle (Heosemys depressa)
* arrau turtle (Podocnemis expansa)
* Australasian pig-nose turtle
* Australian short-necked turtle
* Austro-American sideneck turtle (Chelidae spp.)
* awkward turtle
* big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum)
* black-breasted leaf turtle
* black marsh turtle (Siebenrockiella crassicollis)
* black turtle bean
* Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii)
* bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii)
* box turtle, box-turtle (Terrapene, Cuora spp., Pyxidea spp.)
* chicken turtle, chicken-turtle (Deirochelys reticularia)
* common snakeneck turtle
* cooter turtle
* diamond-backed turtle
* dragon turtle
* eastern long-neck turtle
* false map turtle
* fertile as a turtle
* Fitzroy River turtle
* flatback turtle
* flat-headed turtle (Platemys platycephala)
* Florida redbelly turtle
* Fly River turtle
* golden coin turtle
* gopher turtle
* greaved turtle
* Greenland turtle
* green turtle (Chelonia spp.)
* have a turtle's head
* hawk-billed turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, hawksbill turtle
* horned turtle
* Kemp's ridley sea turtle
* land turtle
* leaf turtle
* leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
* leather turtle, leather-turtle
* leathery turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
* loggerhead turtle, logger-headed turtle
* lute turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
* lyre turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
* Madagascan big-headed turtle
* map turtle (Graptemys spp.)
* marine turtle
* marsh turtle
* Mary River turtle
* mata mata turtle, matamata turtle
* mock turtle
* mock turtle soup
* mud turtle
* Muhlenberg's turtle
* musk turtle
* New Guinea snakeneck turtle
* Nile softshell turtle (Trionyx triunguis)
* olive ridley turtle
* painted turtle
* pancake turtle
* pig-nosed turtle, pig-nose turtle, pignose turtle
* pitted-shelled turtle
* plateless turtle
* Plymouth redbelly turtle
* pond turtle
* purple turtle
* red-bellied turtle
* red-eared turtle
* ridley turtle
* river turtle
* roofed turtle
* sea turtle, sea-turtle
* side-necked turtle
* silver stater with a turtle
* snake-eating turtle
* snake-necked turtle
* snapping turtle, snapping-turtle
* soft-shelled turtle, soft-shell turtle, softshell turtle
* spiny turtle (Heosemys spinosa)
* spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata)
* toad-headed turtle (Mesoclemmys spp.)
* tortoise-shell turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)
* trunk turtle, trunk-turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)
* turning turtles
* turn the turtle
* turn turtle
* turtle ant (Cepalotes and Procryptocerus spp.)
* turtle-back, turtleback (Psathyrodes spp.)
* turtle barnacle (Chelonibia spp.)
* turtle bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
* turtlebloom (Chelone spp.)
* turtleburger
* turtle-corral
* turtle cowrie, turtle cowry (Cyprea testudinaria)
* turtle-crab (Planes minutus)
* turtle-crawl
* turtle curb
* turtle-deck
* turtledom
* turtle dove, turtle-dove (esp. Streptopelia spp.)
* turtle down
* turtle-egging
* turtle excluder device
* turtle-footed
* turtle frog (Myobatrachus spp.)
* turtle frolic
* turtle graphics
* turtle grass, turtle-grass (Thalassia testudinaria)
* turtle-head, turtlehead (Chelone spp.)
* turtle hull
* turtle-insect
* Turtle Island
* turtle-kraal
* turtle leech (Ozobranchus spp.)
* turtle neck, turtle-neck, turtleneck
* turtle peg, turtle-peg
* turtle-press
* turtler
* turtle racing
* Turtle River
* turtles all the way down
* turtle-shell
* turtleshell
* turtle ship
* turtle socks
* turtle soup, turtle-soup
* turtle stone, turtle-stone
* turtle suit
* turtlet
* turtle trade
* turtle-twine
* turtle up
* turtle vine (Callisia repens)
* turtleweed (Batis maritima)
* turtling
* turtly
* twist-necked turtle (Platemys platycephala)
* water turtle (Emydidae spp.)
* western swamp turtle (Pseudemydura umbrina)
* wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta)

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Verb

turtle (third-person singular simple present turtles, present participle turtling, simple past and past participle turtled)
* (intransitive) To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
** 1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32, page 48
    Were speeding when car turtled […] Auto crashed into curb and turtled.
* (intransitive) To move along slowly.
** 2012, Sophie B. Watson, Cadillac Couches, page 193:We turtled along in Manitoba, back into the heart of the prairies.
* (intransitive) To turn and swim upside down.
** 2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering, page 149:I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again.
* (intransitive) To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
** 1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153:Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%).
* (video games, board games) To build up a large defense force and strike only occasionally, rather than going for an offensive strategy.

##### Translations
#### See also

* chelonian
* hatchling (turtle young)
* terrapin
* tortoise

#### References

* turtle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Category:Turtle on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
* Category:Testudines on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
* Testudines on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

### Etymology 2

From Middle English turtle, tortle, turtel, turtul, from Old English turtle, turtla (“turtledove”), ultimately from Latin turtur (“turtledove”), of imitative origin.

#### Noun

turtle (plural turtles)
* (now rare, archaic) A turtle dove.
** 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:The same he tooke, and with a riband new, / In which his Ladies colours were, did bind / About the turtles neck […] .
** 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, I.1:As the turtle, every day has been a black day with her since her husband died, and what should we unruly members make here?

##### Derived terms

* turtle-bird
* turtle dove, turtle-dove, turtledove
* turtleise, turtlise, turtleize, turtlize
* turtleish, turtlish

##### Translations
### Anagrams

* Lutter, ruttle, turlet

## Old English
### Etymology

Ultimately from Latin turtur (“turtledove”), of imitative origin.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈturt.le/, [ˈturˠt.le]

### Noun

turtle f
* turtle dove
    Synonym: *turtledūfe

#### Declension

Weak feminine (n-stem):

#### Coordinate terms

* turtla m (“turtle dove (male)”)

#### Descendants

* Middle English: turtle, tortle, turtel, turtul
** English: turtle (archaic)