请输入您要查询的英文单词:

 

单词 opossum
释义

Definition of opossum in English:

opossum

noun əˈpɒs(ə)m(ə)ˈpɑsəm
  • 1An American marsupial which has a naked prehensile tail and hind feet with an opposable thumb.

    Family Didelphidae: several genera and numerous species. See also Virginia opossum

    Example sentencesExamples
    • As forests become chopped up into ever smaller chunks, the amount of ‘edge’ habitat increases for predators such as blue jays, crows, raccoons, opossums, feral cats, black rat snakes, and others that prey upon birds or their eggs.
    • Many species of warblers sensitive to forest fragmentation live there, too, along with beavers, muskrats, deer, foxes, raccoons, opossums, groundhogs, and other four-legged animals.
    • Oh, that story with the opossums is a true story.
    • Primitively clumsy and slow, with conical heads and pointed pink noses, sparse gray fur and naked ears, mature opossums reach the size of house cats (about ten pounds).
    • The mammals the researchers studied were the platypus, echidna, opossum, wallaby, hedgehog, mouse, rat, rabbit, cow, pig, bat, tree shrew, colugo, ringtail lemur, and humans.
    • He goes behind the fields and starts to trap opossums, skunks, rabbits, and squirrels.
    • There are more than 250 species of birds, in an island just 26 miles long and seven miles wide, and animals from armadillos and agoutis to racoons and opossums.
    • A farmer looking through the fields before harvesting his crop sees rabbits, opossums, mice, rats, birds, foxes, skunks and snakes.
    • Marsupials, such as the opossums of the Americas and the kangaroos, koalas, and wombats of Australasia, generally give birth to tiny immature young which then complete their developments in a pouch.
    • Don't put out any more seed than can be eaten by the birds by nightfall, especially where raccoons, opossums, deer, or rodents are a problem.
    • The opossum sleeps 19 hours out of every 24 and the giraffe sleeps only about 2.
    • All kinds of critters like to dine on poultry, including raccoons, skunks, opossums, weasels, foxes, coyotes, dogs and feral cats.
    • Even though we're on the edge of a major city, our yard is populated by a variety of mice, moles, squirrels, chipmunks and opossums.
    • Skunks, foxes, weasels, opossums and rabbits all use groundhog burrows for their dens.
    • In Florida's Marion County, Interstate 75 cuts right through a state-long swath of greenway that's habitat for bobcats, opossums, and armadillos.
    • Crickets are eaten by small owls, birds, snakes, mice, frogs, raccoons, opossums and many other creatures.
    • Scientists say this mammal is the oldest known fossil ancestor of modern marsupials - which include opossums, kangaroos, and koalas.
    • Many of the animals intentionally introduced to new habitats have been herbivorous mammals, including goats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses, donkeys, monkeys, deer, wallabies, opossums, and squirrels.
    • Meanwhile, creatures that benefit from living around people follow them into disturbed areas, including opossums, raccoons, pigeons and dumpster-diving rats.
    • That's when the animals are most active and it's fun to see the deer, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and birds.
    1. 1.1Australian, NZ A possum.
      Example sentencesExamples
      • I remember looking at some work being done in Tasmania, on opossums who were very, very young.
      • As well as performing amazing movement-restoring surgery on spine damaged opossums, Dr Norman Sauders has built a sailing simulator which he'll be demonstrating at the Sydney Boat Show in August.
      • Rabbits and opossums, which were okayed by the Government of the time, have had an enormous and destructive impact on our environment.
      • A scrawny opossum foraged along the road, scampering toward the woods when I tried to take its picture.
      • On Terra these include kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, opossums, and wombats.

Origin

Early 17th century: from Virginia Algonquian opassom, from op 'white' + assom 'dog'.

  • possum from early 17th century:

    An informal American term for the opossum, a marsupial whose name comes from a Native American word meaning ‘white dog’. This animal feigns death when it is threatened or attacked, which is why playing possum, an expression recorded from the early 19th century in the USA, is pretending to be asleep or unconscious when threatened. In Australia, to stir the possum is to stir up controversy or liven things up. The Australian possum is also a marsupial but is a different animal from its American counterpart.

Rhymes

blossom, possum
 
 

Definition of opossum in US English:

opossum

noun(ə)ˈpäsəm(ə)ˈpɑsəm
  • An American marsupial which has a naked prehensile tail and hind feet with an opposable thumb.

    Family Didelphidae: several genera and numerous species, in particular the cat-sized common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) of North, Central, and South America, which in North America was formerly known as the Virginia opossum and was considered a distinct species (D. virginiana)

    Example sentencesExamples
    • Scientists say this mammal is the oldest known fossil ancestor of modern marsupials - which include opossums, kangaroos, and koalas.
    • A farmer looking through the fields before harvesting his crop sees rabbits, opossums, mice, rats, birds, foxes, skunks and snakes.
    • Many species of warblers sensitive to forest fragmentation live there, too, along with beavers, muskrats, deer, foxes, raccoons, opossums, groundhogs, and other four-legged animals.
    • There are more than 250 species of birds, in an island just 26 miles long and seven miles wide, and animals from armadillos and agoutis to racoons and opossums.
    • In Florida's Marion County, Interstate 75 cuts right through a state-long swath of greenway that's habitat for bobcats, opossums, and armadillos.
    • All kinds of critters like to dine on poultry, including raccoons, skunks, opossums, weasels, foxes, coyotes, dogs and feral cats.
    • Even though we're on the edge of a major city, our yard is populated by a variety of mice, moles, squirrels, chipmunks and opossums.
    • Crickets are eaten by small owls, birds, snakes, mice, frogs, raccoons, opossums and many other creatures.
    • The opossum sleeps 19 hours out of every 24 and the giraffe sleeps only about 2.
    • That's when the animals are most active and it's fun to see the deer, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and birds.
    • Primitively clumsy and slow, with conical heads and pointed pink noses, sparse gray fur and naked ears, mature opossums reach the size of house cats (about ten pounds).
    • Don't put out any more seed than can be eaten by the birds by nightfall, especially where raccoons, opossums, deer, or rodents are a problem.
    • Marsupials, such as the opossums of the Americas and the kangaroos, koalas, and wombats of Australasia, generally give birth to tiny immature young which then complete their developments in a pouch.
    • The mammals the researchers studied were the platypus, echidna, opossum, wallaby, hedgehog, mouse, rat, rabbit, cow, pig, bat, tree shrew, colugo, ringtail lemur, and humans.
    • Meanwhile, creatures that benefit from living around people follow them into disturbed areas, including opossums, raccoons, pigeons and dumpster-diving rats.
    • Skunks, foxes, weasels, opossums and rabbits all use groundhog burrows for their dens.
    • As forests become chopped up into ever smaller chunks, the amount of ‘edge’ habitat increases for predators such as blue jays, crows, raccoons, opossums, feral cats, black rat snakes, and others that prey upon birds or their eggs.
    • Many of the animals intentionally introduced to new habitats have been herbivorous mammals, including goats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses, donkeys, monkeys, deer, wallabies, opossums, and squirrels.
    • Oh, that story with the opossums is a true story.
    • He goes behind the fields and starts to trap opossums, skunks, rabbits, and squirrels.

Origin

Early 17th century: from Virginia Algonquian opassom, from op ‘white’ + assom ‘dog’.

 
 
随便看

 

英语词典包含464360条英英释义在线翻译词条,基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法,是英语学习的有利工具。

 

Copyright © 2004-2022 Newdu.com All Rights Reserved
更新时间:2024/11/11 7:33:12