Library / English Dictionary

TUSK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("tusk" is a kind of...):

tooth (hard bonelike structures in the jaws of vertebrates; used for biting and chewing or for attack and defense)

Meronyms (substance of "tusk"):

ivory; tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

Holonyms ("tusk" is a part of...):

tusker (any mammal with prominent tusks (especially an elephant or wild boar))

boar; Sus scrofa; wild boar (Old World wild swine having a narrow body and prominent tusks from which most domestic swine come; introduced in United States)

elephant (five-toed pachyderm)

Derivation:

tusk (remove the tusks of animals)

tusk (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

tusked (having tusks)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

Synonyms:

ivory; tusk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("tusk" is a kind of...):

dentin; dentine (a calcareous material harder and denser than bone that comprises the bulk of a tooth)

Holonyms ("tusk" is a substance of...):

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

Derivation:

tusk (remove the tusks of animals)

tusk (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove the tusks of animals

Example:

tusk an elephant

Synonyms:

detusk; tusk

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "tusk" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stab or pierce with a horn or tusk

Example:

the rhino horned the explorer

Synonyms:

horn; tusk

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tusk" is one way to...):

pierce; thrust (penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Now, researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oslo have studied ancient DNA from offcuts of tusks and skulls, most found on the sites of former ivory workshops across Europe, in order to trace the origin of the animals used in the medieval trade.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)