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Alligator   /ˈæləgˌeɪtər/   Listen
noun
Alligator  n.  
1.
(Zool.) A large carnivorous reptile of the Crocodile family, peculiar to America. It has a shorter and broader snout than the crocodile, and the large teeth of the lower jaw shut into pits in the upper jaw, which has no marginal notches. Besides the common species of the southern United States, there are allied species in South America.
2.
(Mech.) Any machine with strong jaws, one of which opens like the movable jaw of an alligator; as,
(a)
(Metal Working) A form of squeezer for the puddle ball;
(b)
(Mining) A rock breaker;
(c)
(Printing) A kind of job press, called also alligator press.
Alligator apple (Bot.), the fruit of the Anona palustris, a West Indian tree. It is said to be narcotic in its properties.
Alligator fish (Zool.), a marine fish of northwestern America (Podothecus acipenserinus).
Alligator gar (Zool.), one of the gar pikes (Lepidosteus spatula) found in the southern rivers of the United States. The name is also applied to other species of gar pikes.
Alligator pear (Bot.), a corruption of Avocado pear. See Avocado.
Alligator snapper, Alligator tortoise, Alligator turtle (Zool.), a very large and voracious turtle (Macrochelys lacertina) inhabiting the rivers of the southern United States. It sometimes reaches the weight of two hundred pounds. Unlike the common snapping turtle, to which the name is sometimes erroneously applied, it has a scaly head and many small scales beneath the tail. This name is sometimes given to other turtles, as to species of Trionyx.
Alligator wood, the timber of a tree of the West Indies (Guarea Swartzii).



verb
alligator  v. i. & v. t.  To form shallow cracks in a reticulated pattern on the surface, or in a coating on the surface, of an object.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Alligator" Quotes from Famous Books



... pillow, but a soldier's head That's half the time in brake and bog Must never think of softer bed. The owl is hooting to the night, The cooter crawling o'er the bank, And in that pond the flashing light Tells where the alligator sank. ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly

... years the alligator has become an important factor to the artistic manufacturer. The hide, by a new process, is tanned to an agreeable softness and used in innumerable ways. The most costly bags and trunks are made from it; pocket-books, card-cases, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 362, December 9, 1882 • Various

... The inhabitants, on learning the joyful news, carried the knight and the Lindwurm in triumph into the city of Bruenn, where they have ever since treasured up the memento of their former tyrant. The animal, or reptile, thus preserved, is undoubtedly of the crocodile or alligator species, although I regret it was not in my power to examine it more particularly, evening having set in when I saw it in the arched passage leading to the town-hall of the city where it has been suspended. I fear ...
— Notes and Queries, Issue No. 61, December 28, 1850 • Various

... rise to the top of the water. Hop was English, and Englishmen are apt to call all saurians by this name. I should not have expected to see the real alligator so near the salt water, for I had heard that only crocodiles proper lived or thrived in salt water. It may have been one washed out from some bayou by the high water, which was prevailing at this time, or it may have been the real crocodile. I ...
— Up the River - or, Yachting on the Mississippi • Oliver Optic

... "the principal chief or king of this part of the Timmannee country, is about ninety years of age, with a mottled, shrivelled-up skin, resembling in colour that of an alligator more than that of a human being, with dim, greenish eyes, far sunk in his head, and a bleached, twisted beard, hanging down about two feet from his chin; like the king of the opposite district he wore a necklace of coral and leopard's teeth, but his mantle was brown and dirty as his ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part III. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century • Jules Verne


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