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animal, n.
Forms:
ME animale, ME– animal, lME anymal, 15 anymall, 15–16 animall, 15–16 annimall, 16 annimale, 16–17 (18 U.S. regional) annimal. (Show Less)
Frequency (in current use):
Show frequency band information
Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French animal; Latin animal.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French animal (French animal ) living creature, beast (excluding man) (12th cent. in Old French), living creature (excluding plants) (13th cent.), stupid or uncouth person (1537) and its etymon classical Latin animal living creature (including man), living organism (including plants), animal other than man, (applied contemptuously to a person) creature, brute, in post-classical Latin also animal nature in man (6th cent.) < anima anima n. + -al -al suffix1. Compare Old Occitan animal (c1350), Catalan animal (14th cent.), Spanish animal (13th cent.), Portuguese animal (14th cent.), Italian animale (a1294).
Middle Eng. Dict. at animāl n. records an earlier example from the Auchinleck manuscript copy of Sir Orfeo, but more recent editors read this as aumal , hence showing amel n., an interpretation which is supported by the context and by the equivalent passage in other manuscripts. The French word shows a learned borrowing < Latin; a Romance development from the neuter plural of the Latin word is reflected by Anglo-Norman and Old French aumaille, almaille, etc.
1.
a. A living organism which feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and a nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli; any living creature, including man.Animals are generally distinguished from plants by being unable to synthesize organic molecules from inorganic ones, so that they have to feed on plants or on other animals. They are typically able to move about, though this ability is sometimes restricted to a particular stage in their life cycle. They are eukaryotic and lack rigid cell walls.Animals constituted one of the three Linnaean kingdoms of natural objects, along with plants and minerals, and traditionally included protozoans. In current technical use animals are often defined as multicellular heterotrophs, and thus they now usually include sponges but exclude protozoans. Cf. Animalia n.The great majority of animals are invertebrates, of which there are some thirty phyla; the vertebrates constitute but a single subphylum.
▸
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum
(BL Add. 27944)
(1975)
II. xix. cxvi. 1356
Þilke þat beþ in oon forme in general kynde haþ oon general name in kynde, as man is animal and hors is animal, and so of oþer bestes.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie
(N.Y. Acad. Med.)
f. 52 (MED)
For þe hert is mortified for perdicioun of nutricioun & þe animal, i. beest, perisheþ.
a1500 G. Ripley Myst. Alchemists
(Ashm.)
f. 106v, in Middle Eng. Dict. (at cited word)
In foure elementes byn comprehendid thyngges thre: animal, vegitable, and mynerall.
[a1522 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid
(1957)
i. Prol. l. 367
(margin)
As for animal and homo..vndyr animal beyn contenyt all mankynd, beist, byrd, fowll, fisch, serpent, and all other sik thingis.]
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 311
What peece of worke is a man..the paragon of Annimales .
View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 621
Man hath his daily work..While other Animals unactive range.
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1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. ii. 75
The Deity is generally supposed to be..a Perfectly Happy Animal, Incorruptible and Immortal.
1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. iii. 58
Man is the acknowledged governing Animal upon the Earth.
1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. lix. 737
There are several genera of apterous insects which are parasitical, and infest the human race as well as other animals.
1860 R. Owen Palæontol. 4
When an organism receives nutritive matter by a mouth, inhales oxygen and exhales carbonic acid, and developes [sic] tissues, the proximate principles of which are quaternary compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, it is called an ‘animal’.
1913 W. E. Kellicott Textbk. Gen. Embryol. iii. 97
But by far the most common form is that known as the flagellate spermatozoön, found in all groups of animals from Protozoa to man.
1957 E. Dahlberg Sorrows of Priapus ii. 26
Man is the animal that talks, but the Cosmos is an Act, not a word.
1982 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context: Lab. Man. & Study Guide 137/1
Animals store most of their energy in fats.
1998 A. Pease & B. Pease Why Men don't listen & Women can't read Maps
(1999)
viii. 213
While we are more in control of ourselves than most other animals, we still can't completely buck the system.
a1398—1998(Hide quotations)
b. In ordinary or non-technical use: any such living organism other than a human being.Frequently applied specifically to a mammal, as opposed to a bird, reptile, fish, etc.land-, sea-, water-animal: see the first element.
[1594 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. II. 581
Many men, by reason of their ignorance in the Latine tongue, think that Animal is a beast, whereas it signifieth a liuing creature.]
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It
(1623)
i. i. 14
For the which his Animals on his dunghils are as much bound to him as I.
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1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 129
Of all the Race of Animals, alone The Bees have common Cities of their own.
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1733 A. Pope Ess. Man iii. 69
He..feasts the Animal he dooms his Feast.
1780 Ann. Reg. 196
Gough..unchained a large fierce animal [sc. an orangutan]... Gough is a dealer in wild beasts.
1831 Examiner 219/2
His bill against ‘cruelty to animals’.
1873 A. Helps Some Talk about Animals & their Masters iii. 53
When I use the word ‘animals’ I mean all living creatures except men and women.
1962 S. Ennis tr. P. Sayers Old Woman's Refl. x. 72
He had a protecting fence around the field so that no animal could cross.
1991 Dateline Mag. Jan. 29/3
(advt.)
If you are a gentleman, 35–49,..fun, kind, intelligent, solvent, love animals and wish to meet a solvent..career woman.
2004 K. Stepnell & D. Newman Austral. Animals 45
Unique to Australia, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is an extraordinary mixture of reptile, bird and animal.
a1616—2004(Hide quotations)
c. The living body or soft fleshy part of a mollusc, crustacean, etc., as distinguished from its shell or other hard part.
1669 Philos. Trans.
(Royal Soc.)
4 1012
The colour of the shell is duskish, yet when the shrunk animall gives leave, you may see day through it, and then it is of a yellowish colour.
1831 H. McMurtrie tr. G. Cuvier Animal Kingdom II. 355
These Mollusca are arranged in several families according to the forms of their shells, which appear to bear a constant relation to that of the animal.
1890 D. C. Beard Amer. Boy's Handy Bk. iii. 33
Shells of any kind which contain the living animal when collected, are ever after called live shells, for they still retain all their freshness and lustre after the inmate has been removed.
1930 H. G. Newth Marshall & Hurst's Junior Course Pract. Zool.
(ed. 11)
viii. 119
The dorsal surface of the body carries a spirally coiled univalve shell, which lodges most of the viscera, and within which the entire animal can be withdrawn for protection.
1996 New Scientist 27 July 16/1
Ammonoid shells are common fossils, but few traces remain of the soft-bodied animals that inhabited them.
1669—1996(Hide quotations)
2. In extended use.
a. A person viewed as or likened to an animal; (in non-pejorative sense) a human being, an individual, a ‘creature’ (now rare); (with negative connotations) a person without human attributes or civilizing influences; one who is very cruel, violent, or repulsive.See also party animal n., political animal n. at political adj. and n. Compounds 2.
?1590–1 J. Burel Passage of Pilgremer ii, in Poems sig. P3v
Sick monstrous animals, I mene the cruell canibals, Quha feids on flesch of men.
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. ii. 27
His intellect is not replenished, he is only an annimall, only sensible in the duller partes.
View more context for this quotation
1669 R. Allestree 18 Serm. viii. 829
A Child is born onely an Animal, is to be Educated, and brought up into a Man.
a1704 T. Brown Table-talk in Wks.
(1707)
I. ii. 36
A Physician..is a grave formal Animal.
1765 S. Mackenzie in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist.
(1827)
IV. 481
There is no animal on the face of the earth that the Duke has a more thorough contempt for than Grenville.
1795 M. Wollstonecraft Lett.
(1879)
xxxiii. 93
My animal is well; I have not yet taught her to eat, but nature is doing the business. I gave her a crust to assist the cutting of her teeth.
1839 C. Brontë Let. 21 Dec.
(1995)
I. 206
Emily does the baking... We are such odd animals that we prefer this..to having a new face among us.
1847 R. S. Surtees Hawbuck Grange xii. 229
He looks like a toady—a little shrivelled, parchment-faced, precise, old-maidish sort of animal.
1851 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice I. App. viii. 363
Above the reach of human animals.
1941 J. Agee & W. Evans Let us now praise Famous Men i. 71
The mother whose body already at twenty-seven is so wrung and drained and old, a scrawny, infinitely tired, delicate animal.
1986 Toronto Star
(Nexis)
20 Dec. m5
[He] has little hope that these villains will ever reform: ‘They are nothing but animals,’ he snorts.
2004 Sun
(Nexis)
24 Sept. 2
Campbell is an absolute animal. Scum like him should never be allowed to walk the streets.
?1590–1—2004(Hide quotations)
b. With the. The animal nature in a person. Cf. animal adj. 2, beast n. 1d.
a1728 J. Burroughs Serm. Several Occasions
(1733)
vi. 179
Since we have so much of the animal in our frame, 'tis no wonder that we have so great a relish of the pleasures of the animal life.
1809 C. Simeon Let, 28 July in Mem. C. Simeon
(1847)
x. 272
Less mixture of the animal I never expect to see in this world.
1907 H. A. Vachell Her Son i. 28
The animal in this girl was about to spring upon her.
1919 M. K. Bradby Psycho-anal. 231
His fleshly desires were strong, and he was unmerciful to the animal in himself.
1989 ‘C. Roman’ Foreplay xxv. 301
I can't understand the animal in my nature that gives it so freely without conscience or conscious anxiety.
2006 Ottawa Citizen
(Nexis)
21 Oct. e12
We expect from religion more than the mere taming of the animal within.
a1728—2006(Hide quotations)
c. colloquial. A person or (in later use) thing of a particular type, esp. as distinguished from others. Cf. (there is) no such animal at Phrases 1.
1729 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr.
(1861)
I. 207
He is good-natured and well-meaning, but another sort of animal to his cousin.
1830 in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Feb. 257/1
The very Jew of antiquity was quite a different sort of animal to the modern money-changer.
1925 Amer. Mercury May 31/1
The New England Puritan of the Seventeenth Century was still a far different animal from the revival whooper of today.
1963 Cambr. Rev. 27 Apr. 386/2
Teachers must remember that they are dealing with learners, which is another animal altogether.
1981 P. Salway Roman Brit. 412
Difficulties only arise if we insist on imagining the towns as the same sort of animal as in the second century.
2000 M. Kneale Eng. Passengers 442
It's never being right that matters, after all, it's being believed, which is another animal entirely.
1729—2000(Hide quotations)
†3. In plural, with the. Short for animal spirits: see animal spirit n. Obsolete. rare.
1628 D. Dent Serm. against Drunkennes 16
Diseases in all the regions of man's body; in the animalls, vitalls, and naturalls.
1647 W. Lilly Christian Astrol. xliv. 284
The Disease is in the Animals, not in the Body.
1675 G. Thomson Ορθο-μέθοδος ἰατρο-χυμικὴ: Direct Method curing Chymically ix. 48
The..Images of Sorow, Fear, Anger, Joy, Jealousie, Hatred, Emulation are sometimes so fixed in the Animals, that they become indeleble.
1628—1675(Hide quotations)
Phrases
P1. (there is) no such animal : (there is) no such person or (in later use) thing.
1766 E. Carter Let. in Memoirs
(1807)
476
None are ever fools but by a voluntary act of their own choice. There is no such animal as a fool in nature.
1802 J. Skene Diary 15 Sept. in Ital. Journey
(1937)
1
A melancholy Frenchman!—There is no such animal.
1809 A. Burr Let. 5 July in Private Jrnl.
(1838)
I. 246
No such animal, according to English ideas of a lawyer, in Sweden!
1851 Times 12 Mar. 8/4
As for a ‘friendly’ Caffre..No such animal exists, except in the minds of silly missionaries.
1922 E. F. Murphy Black Candle ii. xxii. 322
I would like to ask these same ‘old-timers’ ‘how many square shooting addicts have you found in your experience?’ I can hear them roar and say ‘There is no such animal’.
1963 Times Rev. Industry May 85/1
Computer makers would therefore have us believe that there is no such animal as a typical programmer.
2002 Backwoods Home Mag. Nov. 74/3
If by homesteading, they mean free land, there ain't no such animal and never was.
1766—2002(Hide quotations)
P2. animal, vegetable, mineral and variants: a guessing game in which players attempt to identify an undisclosed object or entity, having first ascertained to which of the three named categories it belongs. Cf. twenty questions n. at twenty adj. and n. Compounds 4.
[1796 W. F. Mavor Juvenile Olio 227
Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral; or in other words, to which of the three kingdoms of nature does it belong?.. You must understand..that if you do not discover in twenty questions what is thought on, you lose the game.]
1847 J. C. Maitland Hist. Charades x. 120
Uncle Harry asked the children if they ever played at the game of Twenty Questions. ‘Oh yes, often,’ replied Mary. ‘We are very fond of it: Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral, we call it.’
1854 Round Games v. 86
Yes and No. This game..was formerly called Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral.
1956 B.B.C. Handbk. 1957 70
Archaeology triumphantly holds its special place with its somewhat unexpected quiz presentation of ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?’
1973 J. Berryman Recovery
(1974)
81
If life on the ward became really existential only from ten to noon five days a week,..still high moments were possible during Eye-stare and even animal/vegetable/mineral on Saturday morning.
2015 L. Williamson Art of being Normal
(2016)
xxxvii. 285
To pass the time, David tries to encourage me to play games with him—I spy, and animal, vegetable, mineral.
1847—2015(Hide quotations)
P3. to go the whole (also entire, etc.) animal (humorously after to go the whole hog) to do a thing completely or thoroughly; = to go the whole hog at hog n.1 Phrases 4. Now rare.
1833 Sketches & Eccentricities D. Crockett 40
But didn't I go the whole animal?
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby ii. 23
Opposing all half-measures and preferring to go the extreme animal.
1864 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 62
Better pay first-class and go the entire animal.
1995 M. H. Dunlop 60 Miles from Contentment
(1998)
137
The arrangements are all designed for persons who are ready to ‘go the whole animal’.
1833—1995(Hide quotations)
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive.In early use sometimes difficult to distinguish from animal adj.
animal feed n.
1848 Commerc. Rev. South & West Aug. 147
Grain crop of United States, 1847... Corn for animal feed.
1918 Breeder's Gaz. 73 110/1
(heading)
Relative cost of animal feeds.
2007 New Scientist 7 July 31/1
Most corn ethanol refineries make use of their sidestreams to generate animal feed.
1848—2007(Hide quotations)
animal lover n.
1891 New Eng. Mag. Jan. 636/1
This picture appeals to the sympathies of all animal-lovers.
1910 F. E. White
(title)
The animal lover's birthday book.
2005 Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Mar. 10/4
As devoted an animal lover as she was a fervent piano-playing Wagnerite, Maria Luisa fed not only the stray cats and dogs of her Venetian neighbourhood, but the rats as well.
1891—2005(Hide quotations)
animal name n.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. xxiv. 170
The constellations which passe under animall names in heaven.
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1852 J. Alexander Psalms II. 205
Both the animal names in this verse are really designations of the locust.
1931 C. L'Estrange Ewen Hist. Surnames of Brit. Isles xiii. 333
The Anglo-Saxons commonly bestowed animal-names upon their children.
2003 Better Homes & Gardens Sept. 292/2
Plant all things with animal names (tiger lilies, leopard's bane, elephant's-ear, etc.).
1646—2003(Hide quotations)
animal ornament n.
1817 T. D. Fosbroke Brit. Monachism
(ed. 2)
xxxiii. 275
(note)
Grotesque animal ornaments of monstrous heads.
1937 Burlington Mag. Feb. 99/1
Intricate geometrically conceived animal-ornament.
1990 Antiquaries Jrnl. 70 44
The animal ornament of the roof-plate shows features of the tenth-century Jellinge style of Anglo-Scandinavian art.
1817—1990(Hide quotations)
b. Similative and parasynthetic, as animal-bodied, animal-headed, animal-minded, etc.
1844 Visitor's Guide to Sights London 241
At each side, in compartments, are seated figures of mummied animal-headed inferior deities.
1855 E. Higginson Spirit of Bible II. 405
Paul has not hitherto been able to regard them as full-grown spiritual men, but as babes in Christ, animal-minded.
1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad liii. 561
Black-robed, animal-looking Italian monks.
1924 R. Hichens After Verdict iii. xv
Fine-souled and animal-bodied men.
1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. iii. 144
Various animal-shaped vessels.
2001 New Scientist 24 Nov. 19/1
Egypt's animal-headed gods.
1844—2001(Hide quotations)
C2.
animal alkali n. now historical an alkali obtained from animal matter; spec. ammonia or ammonium carbonate; cf. volatile alkali at volatile adj. 3c.
1702 R. Pitt Craft Physick Expos'd 40
Nature has been very liberal in this sort of Animal Alkali.
1794 A. Adam Summary Geogr. & Hist. 105
The alkalis are divided into volatile, which fly off in the open air, as the animal alkali; and into such as are fixed and which do not evaporate, as the fossil and vegetable alkali.
1822 D. Lowry Conversat. Mineral. I. 24
Ammonia was also called animal alkali; because it is always procured from animal matter.
1901 E. B. Foote Home Cycl.
(rev. ed.)
iii. ii. 832
Now, what must be the effect produced on the sensitive and highly excited nerves in the sexual organs, when animal alkalies and acids are united?
1965 M. Boas Hall Robert Boyle on Nat. Philos. i. iv. 88
Boyle differentiated between volatile animal alkalies and fixed vegetable alkalies.
1702—1965(Hide quotations)
animal behaviour n. the behaviour of animals; (in later use) esp. the study of this as a branch of zoology (cf. ethology n. 4).
1888 Science 27 Apr. 199/2
We must..decide from the results whether our notions of the plan of animal behavior is valid or not.
1900 C. L. Morgan Animal Behaviour vii. 310
Though the importance of intelligent adjustment to the circumstances of life is widely admitted as a general principle, it is perhaps through a study of animal behaviour that we are best able to realize its full range and extent.
1967 N. Tinbergen in A. Manning Introd. Animal Behaviour p. v
The study of animal behaviour is now becoming recognized as one of the major branches of biology.
2009 Province
(Vancouver)
(Nexis)
25 Nov. a20
Researchers in animal behaviour have long known that monogamy is uncommon in the natural world.
1888—2009(Hide quotations)
animal behaviourist n. an expert or specialist in animal behaviour; an ethologist; spec. a person who specializes in the treatment of behavioural and emotional problems of (usually domestic) animals.
1914 Jrnl. Animal Bevavior 4 295
The theoretical interests..and the practical needs..place upon the animal behaviorist an obligation to lay the necessary foundations for a scientific..investigation of sexual life.
1953 Condor 55 163/2
Tinbergen is the present-day spokesman of a school of animal behaviorists developed by Lorenz.
1991 Dogs Today Mar. 49/2
I..said I'd take him to a well-known animal behaviourist or a dogs home, whichever I passed first.
1914—1991(Hide quotations)
animal black n. [compare French noir animal] rare = animal charcoal n.Cf. bone black n. at bone n.1 Compounds 6, ivory-black n.
1821 A. Jamieson Universal Sci. II. viii. 259
Many refiners, who make use of animal black, have wisely judged that it might serve more than once.
a1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. I. 106/2
Animal black, carbonaceous matter obtained by the calcination of bones in close vessels.
1957 E. Pound tr. L. Tailhide in Rimaud 15
As factories of suet and animal-Black spread out the whiff and flavour from Grenelle.
1821—1957(Hide quotations)
animal charcoal n. now chiefly historical carbonaceous material formed by charring animal matter (esp. bone), and used as a black pigment and as a decolourizing agent.
1779 E. Darwin Let. 10 Dec.
(2007)
172
Animal charcoal, as burnt blood, or a baked raven.
1786 Edinb. New Dispensatory Introd. p. xxviii
Charred vegetables, as charred linen or tinder; charred pit-coal, as coaks or cinders; animal charcoal, as charred ox-blood.
1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 755
Animal charcoal is a much more powerful discolouring principle than vegetable charcoal.
1938 R. Hum Chem. for Engin. Students iv. 71
Animal Charcoal or Bone Black is obtained by the destructive distillation of slaughter house refuse such as bones and blood.
1941 A. C. Davies Sci. & Pract. Welding ii. 94
Parts to be case-hardened are..covered with carbonaceous powder, such as charred leather, powdered bone, animal charcoal, or cyanide of potassium.
1987 Philos. Trans.
(Royal Soc.)
B. 317 84
Pioneering work on treating insoluble sources of phosphorus, such as animal charcoal (a waste product) with sulphuric acid to render them more available as manures.
1779—1987(Hide quotations)
animal companion n. a domestic animal serving as a person's companion; a pet.
1713 S. Parker tr. St. Athanasius Four Orations against Arians II. 240
All her Regard and Concern terminated in her Animal Companion.
1842 O. de B. Priaulx Quæstiones Mosaicæ vi. 178
His animal companions were driven with him from Paradise.
1901 P. W. Search Ideal School iv. 66
Pets and animal companions are absolutely necessary in the education of a child.
1980 Business Week
(Nexis)
20 Oct. 119
If you know someone who has lost a beloved animal companion, it may help to know that vets and psychiatrists are paying much attention to the problem of how to deal with the resultant grief.
2003 New Yorker 1 Sept. 16/1
‘Petropolis’, an exhibition that's billed as ‘a social history of urban people and their animal companions’.
1713—2003(Hide quotations)
animal cracker n. North American a small sweet biscuit made in the shape of an animal (chiefly in plural).
1878 Washington Post 18 Dec. 4/1
(advt.)
Animal Crackers, Boston Oat Meal and Graham Crackers.
1892 Scribner's Mag. Mar. 300/1
Mr. Simmons had never seen animal crackers before, and he ate them as a child does, biting off the head and each leg in separate nibbles.
1952 Good Housek.
(U.S. ed.)
Dec. 176/2
Dip packaged animal crackers, one by one, into chocolate.
2003 Essence July 176/2
On the plane I give her animal crackers and let her hold the airplane phone.
1878—2003(Hide quotations)
animal cruelty n. (a) cruelty to animals; (b) the savagery of animals; brutish or mindless cruelty by people, likened to the behaviour of animals.
1809 Monthly Reg. July 35/1
The animal cruelty prevention bill.
1879 T. L. Haines & L. W. Yaggy Royal Path of Life
(new ed.)
242
Traces of this animal cruelty are seen in men and women to-day. Let a woman fall from virtue and nine-tenths of her sisters will turn and tear her to pieces.
1921 F. B. Young Tragic Bride xiii. 154
He had caught a baby rabbit, and now he was torturing the small terrified creature... She watched this display of animal cruelty with horror.
1936 Times 25 Sept. 5/6
The evidence is of animal cruelty, and a disregard of all humanity, as shown by the fact that you were practically uninjured, while the dead man was literally battered to death and strangled.
2009 Daily Tel.
(Nexis)
21 Dec. (City section) 5
Two contract workers were convicted of animal cruelty after being filmed playing ‘baseball’ with live turkeys.
1809—2009(Hide quotations)
animal electricity n. now chiefly historical electrical currents generated within an animal's body, esp. in relation to nerve impulses and muscular activity.
1765 Ann. Reg. 1764 i. Chron. 90/2
(heading)
A letter in the Dutch Philosophical Transactions, on the animal electricity of the conger-eel.
1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. II. 81/2
It is in the mode of its development that the chief peculiarity of Animal Electricity consists.
1962 Audel's New Mech Dict. 27/2
Animal electricity, several species of creatures inhabiting the water have the power of producing electrical discharges by certain portions of their organism.
1995 E. A. Davis Sci. in Making I. ii. 53
Similar convulsions [occurred] when two different metals attached to a frog were brought into contact, a phenomenon which Galvani attributed to ‘animal electricity’.
1765—1995(Hide quotations)
animal experiment n. an experiment involving the use of animals.
1770 tr. D. Diderot Let. Blindness 92
Though I am not for laying greater weight on the instance of the parrot than it will really bear, still it is an animal experiment, in which prepossession cannot be supposed to have any share.
1856 Times 18 Mar. 11/3
These animal experiments, which add the test of physiological effect to that of the chymical reagents, decisively confirm our analysis.
1990 Lifestyle Summer 12/2
There are many organisations now campaigning to end animal experiments.
1770—1990(Hide quotations)
animal fat n. fat of animal origin (e.g. from the body of an animal, or from meat or dairy produce); a fat of this type.
1674 Disc. before Royal Soc., Dec. 10, 1674 90
Hence also it appears, That Animal Fat it self, is but the Curdling of the Oily parts of the Blood.
1731 J. Arbuthnot Ess. Nature Aliments vi. 87
Animal Fat..is scissile like a Solid.
1866 E. Enfield Indian Corn 80
The oil is analogous to animal fat, and is readily converted into that substance by a slight change of composition.
1909 E. I. Lewis Elements Org. Chem. xv. 101
Many soaps are manufactured from other than animal fats.
1948 L. E. H. Whitby Nurses' Handbk. Hygiene
(ed. 8)
vi. 150
Vitamin A.—The important sources of this vitamin are animal fats, especially cream, butter, beef-fat, cod-liver oil, [etc].
2009 Mail on Sunday
(Nexis)
13 Dec.
Reducing the amount of animal fat in your diet..can reduce your chance of developing cancer.
1674—2009(Hide quotations)
animal flower n. now rare a sedentary marine invertebrate that resembles a flower in form and colour; esp. a sea anemone.
1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados ix. 296
Among these also are a great Number of Animal Flowers of the same Species with the yellow large ones.
1768 J. Ellis in Philos. Trans. 1767
(Royal Soc.)
57 428
The Actinia, called by old authors..Urtica marina, from its supposed property of stinging, is now more properly called by some late English authors the Animal flower.
1855 P. H. Gosse Man. Marine Zool. I. 16
The extensive group known popularly as Sea-anemones or Animal-flowers, from the blossom-like appearance of their expanded disks and tentacles, and their gorgeous colours.
1964 Rotarian June 29/1
Beneath and around him in the bay of Guaymas, Mexico, is the strange and beautiful world of undersea life.., of brilliant submarine gardens of waving animal ‘flowers’.
2009 Fort McMurray
(Alberta)
Today
(Nexis)
17 Apr. b7
I have been to the stunning north coast [of Barbados], watched the awe-inspiring Atlantic crash and foam on the steep cliffs and been through the animal flower caves.
1750—2009(Hide quotations)
animal food n. food, or a foodstuff, which consists of animals or animal products (as meat, dairy produce, etc.).
1691 T. Tryon Wisdom's Dictates 114
It is a grand mistake to think that Vegitations and Foods made thereof, though they have not gross greasy qualities as Animal Food have, are therefore to be counted poor, lean, and of but little Nourishment.
1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 255
Eggs are perhaps the..most nourishing..of all animal Food.
1819 J. Keats Let. ?26 Oct.
(1958)
II. 225
I have left off animal food.
1995 Mother & Baby June 88/1
Vegans will not eat any meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk or milk products—in other words, no animal foods at all.
1691—1995(Hide quotations)
animal-free adj. containing no animal products or involving no animals; (of food or diet) vegetarian or vegan.
1918 Amer. Med. June 380/1
An animal-free diet will hold the eruption [of psoriasis] at bay.
1965 Brit. Vegetarian Mar.–Apr. 118
Animal-free margarine and frying oil.
1986 Toronto Star
(Nexis)
11 Feb. a20
In spite of our good name, a good show and some wonderful press and television coverage, the animal-free circus hasn't worked.
1996 Los Angeles Times
(Electronic ed.)
23 Mar. 31
The table's going to be divided right down the middle: animal-free products on the right, lard drippings on the left.
2006 N.Y. Times 27 Aug. (T: Style Mag.) 94/3
A range of ‘ethical’ accessories: shoes, belts, bags..and jewelry cobbled from animal-free materials.
1918—2006(Hide quotations)
animal glue n. glue made by boiling down the hides, hooves, or bones of animals (cf. glue n. 2).
1753 W. Lewis New Dispensatory 57/1
Animal glues and gellies have the general qualities of the vegetable gums and mucilages.
1846 D. H. Mahan Elem. Course Civil Engin.
(new ed.)
43
The common animal glue is seldom used as a cement for any other purpose than for the work of the joiner.
1903 E. W. Foster Elem. Woodworking 39
Glue is of two kinds,..animal glue being manufactured from such products as bone, horn, hoofs, and hide. The dry glue in the form of chips must be dissolved in water and heated.
1991 Artist Nov. 14/2
By combining animal glue and pigment, an excellent, permanent, water-based paint..can be made.
1753—1991(Hide quotations)
animal grab n. a card game similar to ‘snap’, in which players ‘grab’ matching animal cards (cf. grab n.2 5).
1894 Glasgow Herald 1 Dec. 7/7
The firm have also issued a group of new Christmas card games, enclosed in neat cases. These include ‘Cheery Families’, ‘Animal Grab’, &c.
1898 Windsor Mag. Nov. 619/1
I have seen a bishop thoroughly enjoy a game of ‘animal grab’.
1941 J. Cary House of Children x. 38
The unexpected playmate who..forgot some pressing duty in order to play..animal grab, even more noisily than we.
2001 Independent
(Nexis)
6 Dec. 7
Board or card games would be an idea, particularly ones that involve a lot of shouting, like..Snap, Pit or Animal Grab.
1894—2001(Hide quotations)
animal heat n. now chiefly historical the heat generated within the bodies of living animals.
1603 A. Munday tr. F. Citois True Hist. Mayden of Confolens f. 24v
In the earth there is a moisture, & in the moisture is a spirit, and in this great substance, is the animall heat, to the end that all things should be somewhat full of soule.
1779 A. Crawford Exper. & Observ. Animal Heat iv. 81
Animal heat depends, indirectly, upon a change which the blood undergoes in the course of the circulation.
1869 H. E. Roscoe Lessons Elem. Chem.
(new ed.)
xli. 411
The whole of the animal heat is derived from the combustion of the materials of the body.
1955 F. G. Ashbrook Butchering i. 9
After slaughter the animal heat leaves the carcass.
2002 R. Porter Blood & Guts iv. 81
Helmholtz devoted himself to the measurement of animal heat and the velocity of nerve conduction.
1603—2002(Hide quotations)
animal husbandry n. the branch of agriculture concerned with the breeding and rearing of livestock.
1851 Dublin Univ. Mag. Apr. 469
Physically he was a favourable specimen of an extensive human area, cultivated upon a judicious system of animal husbandry.
1925 N. S. B. Gras Hist. Agric. Europe & Amer. iii. xiii. 327
Some in America would regard the dairy industry as the master craft in animal husbandry.
2006 Science 11 Aug. 805/1
The epipaleolithic tool kit..defines them as hunter-gatherers, possibly already practicing some animal husbandry.
1851—2006(Hide quotations)
animal kingdom n. animals collectively, as one of the major divisions of the natural world (now in Biology usually excluding protozoans).See note at sense 1a.
1650 J. F. tr. M. Sedziwój New Light of Alchymie 114
By the due separation, and conjunction of these, Nature produceth..in the Animall Kingdome [L. in regno..animali] the Body, Spirit, and Soule, which especially doth resemble the work of the Philosophers.
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. p. xxiii
Men usually consider the productions of Nature as forming three distinct parts, called the Animal, the Vegetable, and the Fossil or Mineral Kingdom.
1862 T. H. Huxley On Knowl. Causes Phenomena Org. Nature 49
If you divide the Animal Kingdom into Orders you will find that there are above one hundred and twenty.
1906 Lancet 24 Nov. 1447/1
He..points out the reasons for allotting protococcus to the vegetable kingdom, the amoeba to the animal kingdom, and the springing monad..to neither.
2002 P. Herring Biol. Deep Ocean App. 286
Arthropods..are by far the most abundant members of the animal kingdom.
1650—2002(Hide quotations)
animal lib n. colloquial = animal liberation n.
1974 Los Angeles Times 15 Aug. vii. 1/2
Fluffie the elephant may not become the symbol of animal lib in this city after all.
2006 J. A. McCaffrey Troubler 113
I've taken all of the Irish material, all the animal lib stuff, and all of the Islam material and packed it.
1974—2006(Hide quotations)
animal libber n. colloquial (frequently depreciative) = animal liberationist n.
1977 Chicago Tribune 22 Oct. i. 12/2
References to prison crop up among animal libbers with the persistence of weeds.
2007 Canberra Times
(Nexis)
21 May
Animal libbers may find it easy to fool Hollywood stars and pop singers, but on this issue..they've got a few roos loose in the top paddock.
1977—2007(Hide quotations)
animal liberation n. the action or process of freeing animals from exploitation by humans, esp. from use in laboratory experiments; this as a principle or movement (frequently attributive).
1970 Yuma
(Arizona)
Daily Sun 11 Oct. 9
(headline)
Animal liberation has come a long way.
1973 N.Y. Rev. Books 5 Apr. 21/4
Animal Liberation will require greater altruism on the part of mankind than any other liberation movement.
1983 Listener 14 Apr. 13/1
The animal liberation movement..is not saying that all lives are of equal worth.
2001 Vegetarian Times
(Nexis)
1 Jan. 10
We are determined to help educate people to pure vegetarian living... We truly believe that animal liberation is human liberation.
1970—2001(Hide quotations)
Animal Liberation Front n. an international organization dedicated to the pursuit and promotion of animal liberation, often by militant means; abbreviated A. L. F.
1976 N.Y. Times 9 Sept. 28/3
A group calling itself the Animal Liberation Front..takes responsibility today for vandalism on a truck.
2000 M. Barrowcliffe Girlfriend 44 v. 147
He had an alarmingly earnest friend called Paul who was press spokesman for the local Animal Liberation Front eco-terrorists.
1976—2000(Hide quotations)
animal liberationist n. a person engaged in animal liberation; an animal rights activist.
1977 Analysis 37 186
Animal rights may not give vegetarians and animal liberationists all that they want, but the existence of such rights would unquestionably strengthen the cases of both camps.
2003 N.Y. Times
(National ed.)
6 July ii. 9/1
Animal liberationists, masked like terrorists, break into a lab and release tightly caged chimpanzees.
1977—2003(Hide quotations)
animal magnetism n. [after French magnétisme animal ( F. A. Mesmer Mém. sur la découverte du magnétisme animal (1779))] (a) a supposed force or emanation to which the action of mesmerism is attributed; (also) = mesmerism n. (now historical); (b) natural charm or personal appeal; sexual attractiveness.
1784 H. Walpole Let. in Academy
(1882)
25 Feb. 139/1
Animal Magnetism has not yet made much impression here.
1891 New Englander
(New Haven, Connecticut)
54 25
To accommodate the crowds who sought the supposed benefits of animal magnetism trees were magnetized by the doctors. About these trees patients sat in rows—holding on to cords that were attached to the trunk—and supposed that through these cords they were receiving the magnetic fluid.
1971 Homes & Gardens Aug. 34/2
A great number of young ladies considered him devastatingly attractive, so he must have exuded powerful animal magnetism.
1991 M. Daheim Just Desserts ix. 87
All of a sudden, this gorgeous hunk sort of sidled up to me. I could feel the animal magnetism.
2005 M. Roach Spook iv. 117
Od force had been making the rounds as the latest form of life force, having bumped aside Franz Mesmer's animal magnetism.
1784—2005(Hide quotations)
animal magnetist n. now historical = mesmerist n.
1792 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 20. 155
A great number of animal magnetists were among this crowd of philosophers.
1831 Fraser's Mag. 4 367
The animal magnetists..supposed it possible to restore for a time man and woman to an hermaphrodital state.
1948 Logansport
(Indiana)
Press 3 Nov. 2/4
Theosophy already is divided into two warring cults.., and a foot-washing animal magnetist regards the numerologist as an untouchable.
1995 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 139 132
Bell and Condie were unrelenting on Thomsonians, botanical doctors, homeopaths, animal magnetists, and purveyors of various panaceas.
1792—1995(Hide quotations)
animal mechanics n. [compare French mécanique des animaux (mid 17th cent.), mécanique animale (1867)] Zoology = biomechanics n. 1.
1766 A. Hume tr. S. A. D. Tissot Onanism x. 101
It is a law in animal mechanics..that when motions are increased, the increase is more considerable in those parts which are the most susceptible of it.
1882 Cent. Mag. July 381
The Horse in Motion, as Shown by Instantaneous Photography, with a Study on Animal Mechanics.
1917 H. F. Osborn Origin & Evol. Life 10
In animal mechanics motion controls and, in a sense, creates the form of muscles and bones.
2004 Jrnl. Exper. Biol. 207 1601/1
The mechanism by which surface tension allows waterstriders (members of the genus Gerris) to stand on the surface of a pond or stream is a classic example for introductory classes in animal mechanics.
1766—2004(Hide quotations)
animal model n. an experimental model, esp. of a disease or other pathological process, using animals in place of humans; (also) an animal used in such experiments.
1955 Q. Jrnl. Stud. Alcohol 16 56
The experimental situation is intended to supply an animal model showing a state of dependence on alcohol.
1996 Financial Post
(Canada)
13 Dec. 14/4
The virus [sc. bovine viral diarrhea virus] is an accepted animal model for hepatitis C.
2006 Science 8 Sept. 1377/3
His studies on animal models of Alzheimer's disease..suggest that the earliest detectable sign of the disease is reduced metabolism in the entorhinal cortex.
1955—2006(Hide quotations)
† animal moss n. Obsolete a bryozoan; cf. moss animal n. at moss n.1 Compounds 2a.
1858 New Eng. Farmer Mar. 124/1
In the order of Worms, the Tube-worm, Sand-tape, &c., and in the Polypi, were the Animal Moss and the Sea Anemone.
1869 H. M. Hart tr. C. H. B. A. Moquin-Tandon World of Sea xvii. 172
The structure raised by the polypi is termed..a polypidom; and, on the same principle of nomenclature, ‘animal moss’ is a polyzoary.
1920 J. Rithcie Infl. Man on Animal Life in Scotl. vii. 414
More serious were the growths of ‘Leitungsmoos’—plant-like colonies of animal moss or Polyzoa, which in Antwerp were found to form all round the inside of a..pipe a coat nearly 10 cm. (over 4 inches) thick.
1858—1920(Hide quotations)
animal myth n. (a) (esp. in folklore) a myth or fable about an animal, or a creature having the (partial) form of an animal; (b) a popular (but usually erroneous) belief about the habits or behaviour of an animal or animals.
1872 Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. 3 73
Animal myths are numerous [amongst the Amazonian Indians], and bear a very striking resemblance to the zoölogical myths of the Old World.
1886 Times 2 Nov. 4
While we must be excused from accepting as gospel all that is written concerning the great animal myths, it is no doubt true that..many stories once regarded as fabulous are now accepted by the best authorities as genuine.
1903 Amer. Anthropologist 5 338
In the animal myths the most prominent figure is the rabbit,..always as a trickster and deceiver.
1955 Times 12 July 10
(heading)
Animal myth and libel. A miscellany of curious beliefs about British creatures.
1987 Smithsonian
(Nexis)
1 Apr. 159
As observation and the scientific method increasingly displaced knowledge-by-faith, many animal myths were discredited.
2005 D. F. Passmann & H. J. Real in H. J. Real & P. E. Firchow Perennial Satirist i. 40
It is not beauteous and graceful mermaids but repulsively monstrous, cannibalistic mermen who are recorded in the animal myths of the natives.
1872—2005(Hide quotations)
† animal oat n. Obsolete = animated oat n. at animated adj. Compounds.
1835 Penny Cycl. III. 166/2
When the animal oat is ripe it falls out of its glumes, and in warm dry weather may be seen rolling and turning about.
1865 Chambers's Encycl. VII. 21/2
Its awns have much of the hygrometrical property which gains for A[vena] sterilis, a species found in the south of Europe, the name of the Animal Oat, because the seeds when ripe and fallen on the ground resemble insects, and move about in an extraordinary manner through the twisting and untwisting of the awns.
1835—1865(Hide quotations)
animal oil n. †(a) a supposed fluid substance essential for life; cf. oil n.1 2 (obsolete rare); (b) any oil obtained from an animal's body.
1650 T. Vaughan Anthroposophia Theomagica 20
The Air is Corpus vitae spiritus nostri sensitivi, our Animal Oyl, the Fuell of the Vital, Sensual fire, without which which we cannot subsist a Minute.
1696 J. Floyer Preternatural State Animal Humours iv. 44
The Mineral Sulphurs which exagitate the Animal Oyls, and so promote Fermentation, as Chalybeates, Antimonial, and common Sulphur.
1731 P. Shaw Three Ess. Artific. Philos. 46
The best Ways of curing Animal Substances; but particularly Flesh, Fish, and animal Oils or Fats, for Exportation, and long Voyages.
1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. iii. 188
Animal oil is produced in great abundance by the Whale and the Porpoise.
1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol.
(ed. 5)
xix. 335
Vitamin E..is universally present in both vegetable and animal oils.
2002 MX News 7 Mar. 14/6
Biodiesel—fuel produced from vegetable and animal oils or recycled grease—is poised to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry.
1650—2002(Hide quotations)
animal painter n. a painter of animals, as opposed to landscapes, portraits, narrative pictures, etc.
1780 W. Smellie tr. M. de Mours in tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Gen. & Particular VI. 97
The celebrated M. Oudry, a most distinguished animal painter..painted from life, and of the natural size, the Saint-Germain rhinoceros.
1802 R. J. Hunter Racing Cal. 362
H. Barnard Chalon, animal painter to their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York.
1970 Times 13 Jan. 2
A masterpiece by the great English animal painter, George Stubbs, is to be sold shortly at Sotheby's.
2007 Daily Post
(Liverpool)
(Nexis)
1 Dec. 15
William Huggins..is..arguably..the most original animal painter of the Victorian era.
1780—2007(Hide quotations)
animal painting n. the painting of animals; this as a genre.
1759 J. Berkenhout tr. C. G. Tessin Lett. to Young Prince I. xxvi. 156
For ornament and animal-painting, we may boast of our Pasch.
1825 Times 30 Apr. 6
There are..some fine landscapes by Mr. Constable and Mr. Turner; and some admirable specimens of animal painting by Edwin Landseer.
1936 W. F. Calderon
(title)
Animal painting and anatomy.
2008 N.Y. Times
(Nexis)
14 July e1
Another tradition of animal painting was the scientific: the attempt to catalog species visually.
1759—2008(Hide quotations)
animal park n. = park n. 3e.
1887 Cent. Mag. Sept. 649/2
The delighted marquis goes off into an enthusiastic description of his host,..giving us also the results of Jefferson's project of an animal park.
1910 Weston Gaz. 15 Jan. 6/2
He is still the heart and soul of the animal-park at Stellingen, near Hamburg, and one of the greatest authorities on wild beasts and their ways.
2002 T. Pinchuck et al. Rough Guide S. Afr.
(ed. 3)
639
The dam and its surrounds have been thoroughly mauled by camping and picnic sites, animal parks,..and endless ranks of arts-and-craft emporiums.
1887—2002(Hide quotations)
animal piece n. a work of art portraying an animal or animals (see piece n. 14).
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. 378
In animal-pieces; where beasts, or fowl are represented.
1867 G. W. Samson Elem. Art Crit. viii. 676
The flower, fruit, fowl and animal pieces to which the best artists of the Dutch School have been devoted.
1998 J. Sund in M. A. Calo Crit. Issues Amer. Art xiv. 228
Edward C. Potter..specialized in animal pieces.
1711—1998(Hide quotations)
† animal plant n. Obsolete a sedentary aquatic invertebrate; a zoophyte.In quot. 1699 glossing Zoophyton, a Russian plant.
[1699 P. Gordon Geogr. Anatomized
(ed. 2)
ii. i. 75
As one of the Chief Rarities of this Country, we may reckon that strange sort of Melon, found in or near to Astracan, Casan and Samara. Some of the Natives term it Boranetz, (i. e. The Little Lamb) others Zoophyton, which signifies the Animal Plant.]
1736 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum
(ed. 2)
Pref.
Zoophytography..a Treatise or Discourse of animal Plants, as Cockles, Muscles, Oysters.
1757 Philos. Trans. 1756
(Royal Soc.)
49 592
He then mentions different bodies, which he calls plant-animals, and animal-plants, according to the characters.
1846 R. Patterson Introd. Zool. 14
The term Zoophyte, literally meaning animal-plant.
1736—1846(Hide quotations)
animal protein n. a protein that is present in animal tissues; (also) protein derived from an animal source.
1843 Med. Times 13 May 108/3
Mr. Brande exhibited all those properties of the different modifications of vegetable and animal protein.
1907 T. B. Osborne Proteins of Wheat Kernel 114
Leucosin resembles the animal proteins in ultimate composition.
1991 Vegetarian Times Jan. 78/1
It spends time debunking the myth that people need lots of protein, particularly animal protein, to stay healthy.
2002 Wired Oct. 40/1
The corn [is]..the nation's first large-scale commercial crop of transgenic plants in which animal proteins are being grown for drug production.
1843—2002(Hide quotations)
animal psychologist n. an expert or specialist in animal psychology.
1894 J. E. Creighton & E. B. Titchener tr. W. M. Wundt Lect. Human & Animal Psychol. xxiii. 342
The inclination of animal psychologists [Ger. Thierpsychologen] to see the intellectual achievements of animals in the most brilliant light.
1952 K. Lorenz King Solomon's Ring
(1962)
xi. 164
This can be convincingly demonstrated by the existence of an order of rank, known to animal psychologists as the ‘pecking order.’
2008 Daily Tel. 30 Oct. 3/3
Roger Mugford, an animal psychologist, said: ‘Cheetahs do tame quite well and do not tend to be a huge threat to people’.
1894—2008(Hide quotations)
animal psychology n. the study of animal behaviour; ethology.
1838 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 447/2
These phenomena might be said to constitute the proper facts of animal psychology.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 1 Aug. 15/2
Animal psychology in France is no longer the quoting of instances of the supernatural intellectual qualities of the tame dog... The ethological method has sprung into existence.
2007 N.Y. Times Mag. 25 Nov. 86/2
Hazing also ignores a breakthrough in animal psychology known as the Garcia Principle.., which suggests that..you may never be able to get an animal to associate food with pain.
1838—2007(Hide quotations)
animal quinoidine n. Biochemistry (now historical) an alkaloid found in animal tissues that resembles quinine in its optical and chemical properties.
1866 H. B. Jones & A. Dupre in Proc. Royal Soc. 1866–7 15 92
This fluorescent substance..has a very close optical and chemical resemblance to quinine..we have therefore called it ‘animal quinoidine’.
1925 Biochem. Jrnl. 19 411
The fluorescence of ‘animal quinoidine’ is fairly resistant to oxidation, but readily disappears upon treatment with acid solutions of nitrite.
1973 Notes & Rec. Royal Soc. 28 47
In order to determine the degree of fluorescence due to the quinine..it was necessary to estimate that due to the animal quinoidine in the tissues.
1866—1973(Hide quotations)
animal refuge n. an establishment for the care and protection of (domestic) animals that have been abused, neglected, or abandoned.
1887 13th Ann. Rep. Tunbridge Wells Soc. Prevention Cruelty to Animals 1886 24
The establishment of an ‘Animal Refuge’, a marked improvement on the old Pound.
1954 A. L. Basham Wonder that was India x. 500
The doctrine of non-violence encouraged the endowment of animal refuges and homes for sick and aged animals, and such charities are still maintained in many cities in India.
2009 Christian Sci. Monitor
(Nexis)
2 Mar. 17
As the largest no-kill animal refuge in the country, the sanctuary cares for about 2,000 abused and abandoned animals.
1887—2009(Hide quotations)
animal sacrifice n. the practice or an act of ritually slaughtering an animal as an offering to a god or gods; an animal sacrificed in this way.
1686 J. Scott Christian Life: Pt. II II. vii. 692
Animal Sacrifices were generally used before the institution of the Aaronical Priesthood.
1756 J. Orton Doddridge's Family Expositor VI. 104
That Regard to the great Atonement, which he expressed by bringing an Animal Sacrifice, while Cain contented himself with the vegetable Products of the Ground.
1866 M. Mayer tr. A. Geiger Judaism & its Hist. v. 93
Animal Sacrifice has also for its object to win favor by giving up some property, without tending to moral reform.
1989 E. M. Yamauchi in J. Vardaman & E. M. Yamauchi Chronos, Kairos, Christos 26
A famous relief..in northwest Asia Minor depicts magi bringing animal sacrifices.
2009 Guardian
(Nexis)
25 Nov.
(Final ed.)
27
The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal yesterday with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival.
1686—2009(Hide quotations)
animal sanctuary n. (a) an area of land set aside as a secure habitat where (endangered or rare) animals can live and breed; a reserve; (b) an establishment for the care and protection of abused, neglected, or abandoned animals; an animal refuge.
1901 Pall Mall Mag. Sept. 78/1
The four animal sanctuaries..have succeeded under sufficiently marked differences of soil, climate and situation to encourage any one who may contemplate establishing yet another reserve in no matter what district.
1956 Walla Walla
(Washington)
Union-Bull. 9 Apr. 8/7
‘We established down here a refuge for stray cats and dogs.’..Special features of the animal sanctuary are central heating and meals prepared by the chef of the Hotel De Paris.
1992 J. Herriot Every Living Thing
(1993)
343
There were always better days ahead for the abandoned dogs at Sister Rose's little animal sanctuary.
2009 Advertiser
(Adelaide)
(State ed.)
(Nexis)
11 Dec. (Features section) 81
More than 1000ha of land has been developed as an animal sanctuary including five major habitat exhibits.
1901—2009(Hide quotations)
animal science n. (originally) the branch of natural science or biology dealing with the animal kingdom (= zoology n. 1) (now rare); spec. (in later use) zoological science as applied to animal husbandry and meat and dairy production; any of the branches of this. [After German Tierkunde zoology (1773 as Thierkunde, or earlier).]
1819 G. Field in Pamphleteer 15 135
Upon animal science depends the art of healing, or Medicine in its vulgar acceptation.
1933 Sci. Monthly Jan. 71/2
The extensive and thorough research in plant and animal sciences has placed in man's hand tools for an enormous increase in food production.
1992 Hippocrates Jan. 72/1
‘It's very, very difficult to get a horse to drink if he doesn't want to,’ says Jack Algeo, head of the animal sciences department at California Polytechnic State University.
2016 Farming Life
(Nexis)
29 Aug.
Delegates from over 60 countries will gather to hear the latest developments in animal science and discuss issues around how science can help secure sustainable food systems.
1819—2016(Hide quotations)
animal shelter n. (a) a structure used to house animals; (b) originally North American = animal refuge n.
1891 Statutes at Large U.S.A. Index 1677/1
Animal shelters,..barns, cages, fences.
1896 Boston Advertiser 16 July 4/5
Dog fanciers don't like the way in which the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is running its animal shelter.
1965 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 55 565
(caption)
Small log spin-crib structure. The central structure is used for storage; the sheds may be animal shelters.
2006 E. Adamson Adopting Pet for Dummies i. 21
Animal shelters adopt animals, and some euthanize animals that are not adopted or adoptable.
1891—2006(Hide quotations)
animal series n. now chiefly historical = animal kingdom n.
1831 Bristol Mercury 15 Mar. 1/1
Philosophical anatomy had for its object the development of organs through the animal series.
1924 R. M. Ogden tr. K. Koffka Growth of Mind ii. §2. 40
The higher an individual stands in the animal-series, the more helpless he is at birth.
2000 Amer. Zoologist 40 848/2
In his 1699 treatise on the chimpanzee..the anatomist Edward Tyson implicitly included humanity in the animal series.
1831—2000(Hide quotations)
animal size n. now rare a size (size n.2 2) made from gelatin.
1799 Philos. Mag. 4 335
This size has no smell; while animal size, which putrefies so readily, always exhales a very disagreeable odour.
1887 Harper's Mag. June 124/2
If paper is to be ‘tub-sized’ as well as ‘engine-sized’, an animal size..is mixed with dissolved alum and placed in a tub or vat.
1928 Times 10 Feb. 15/4
Damp, lodging in these cracks, corrupts the animal size with which the pipeclay gesso is mixed.
1941 Advertising & Publishing Prod. Yearbk. 7 160
Animal size, gelatin used for surface-sizing rag-content grades of bond, ledger, and index papers.
1993 A. Sloan & K. Gwynn Trad. Paints & Finishes 67
Animal size can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week before it goes bad, but it thickens on standing and adding water weakens it.
1799—1993(Hide quotations)
animal-sized adj. now rare (of paper) that has been treated with animal size.
1860 Jrnl. Sel. Comm. Public Printing (36th U.S. Congr. 1 Sess.: Senate) 146
He would furnish one hundred reams of long fiber, animal sized, paper.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 36/1
Animal-sized, paper which has been hardened by passing the sheet through a bath of gelatine. More costly than engine-sized.
1860—1940(Hide quotations)
animal starch n. = glycogen n.
1855 Med. Examiner 11 577
To these globules the animal starch corpuscle bears a very marked resemblance.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XX. 921/2
The sugars are taken up from the circulation and stored in a less soluble form—known as ‘animal starch’—in the liver and muscle cells.
1986 M. Kogut tr. H. G. Schlegel Gen. Microbiol. ii. 66
Glycogen, also known as ‘animal starch’, is similar to amylopectin.
1855—1986(Hide quotations)
animal tub-sized adj. now rare (of paper) that has been treated with animal size in a tub or vat.
1899 World's Paper Trade Rev. 25 Aug. 4/2
Hand-made or Mould-made.—Animal tub-sized (‘Hand-made’ or ‘mould-made’ to be marked on the wrapper).
?1912 Printing Papers
(Spalding & Hodge)
ii. 1
Animal Tub-sized, or A.T.S., is a term employed to denote the more costly method of passing the manufactured sheet through a bath or ‘tub’ of animal size.
1929 Victoria Govt. Gaz. 26 June 1824
(table)
Composition.—Pure rag, animal tub-sized, free from starch and added mineral matter, plate rolled.
1971 A. H. Shorter Paper making in Brit. Isles viii. 220
The Valleyfield Mill..range of output included..animal tub-sized writings.
1899—1971(Hide quotations)
animal tub-sizing n. rare the process of treating paper with animal size in a tub or vat; cf. tub-size vb. at tub n.1 Compounds 2.
1937 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 7
Animal tub-sizing, abbr. A.T.S., same as tub-sizing.
1939 C. M. Green Holyoke, Mass. v. 154
A third method combined the use of some rosin engine-sizing with additional animal tub-sizing.
1937—1939(Hide quotations)
animal welfare n. the welfare or proper treatment of animals.
1828 Western Luminary 9 Apr. 325/3
They are taught a practical lesson, that industry is necessary to animal welfare.
1927 Times 2 Mar. 12/4
A society has been formed within the University of London..to promote wider sympathy and knowledge in respect of animal welfare.
2005 Independent 4 Mar. 7/1
The size of goldfish bowls..will become a matter for animal welfare inspectors when the law comes into force.
1828—2005(Hide quotations)
animal world n. the world of animals; animals collectively, the animal kingdom.
1665 G. Havers & J. Davies in Gen. Coll. Disc. Virtuosi of France
(Bureau d'Adresse)
cv. 29
The three parts of the Animal World; the Memory..the Imagination..and the Judgment.
1746 D. De Coetlogon
(title)
A tour through the animal world; or an historical and accurate account of near 400 animals, birds, fishes, serpents, insects, &c.
1889 Athenæum 5 Jan. 12/1
All we know or can conjecture as to the beginnings of mind in the animal world or in the human individual.
1966 R. Morris & D. Morris Men & Apes v. 126
Albertus [Magnus] made the first attempt to bridge the gap between man and the rest of the animal world by means of a kind of ‘missing link’ in the shape of the pygmy and the ape.
2008 New Scientist 26 Apr. 30/1
This startle or ‘deimatic’ display is fairly common in the animal world, but it's a risky strategy.
1665—2008(Hide quotations)
Derivatives
ˈanimal-like adj.
1835 J. H. Ingraham South-West I. ii. 23
As she [sc. the ship] encountered some more formidable wave, there would be a tremendous outlay of animal-like energy.
1965 J. A. Michener Source
(1966)
523
In this animal-like swamp of human passion the most careful rules had to be drawn, and once drawn, observed.
1990 B. Bettelheim Recoll. & Refl. ii. 161
At the age of nineteen months, Helen had become blind, deaf, and soon also mute, and had reverted to an animal-like existence.
2002 E. McLaughlin & N. Kraus Nanny Diaries vi. 161
Her low sobs give way to a deep, animal-like keening.
1835—2002(Hide quotations)
