Other forms: tortoiseshells
Tortoiseshell is a mottled brown and yellow pattern, or that kind of cat. A tortoiseshell comb.
The real material came from sea turtles and has been banned for decades. A tortoiseshell cat is almost always female, which is down to how the colour genes sit.
1nountortoiseshellA mottled brown and yellow pattern, or that kind of cat.
“The tortoiseshell sat in the window all day.”
tortoiseshell is a pattern.
Tortoise plus shell, though the shell used was the hawksbill turtle's, not any tortoise's.
From tortoise + shell.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA