Other forms: turtles
A turtle is a slow animal that carries its shell on its back. A sea turtle, turtle eggs, turtles nesting.
In British use turtle means the sea-going kind and tortoise the land one; in America turtle covers both, which is a reliable source of confusion. The shell is fused to the spine and ribs, so a turtle cannot leave it. Turn turtle means to capsize. Note that the turtle dove is a completely different word, from the Latin for its call.
1nounturtleA shelled reptile, especially a sea-going one.
“The baby turtles crawled across the sand to the sea.”
turtle is a reptile.
Also accepted in games: tortoise
Old French tortue gave English tortue, reshaped as turtle under the influence of the unrelated turtle dove, whose name comes from Latin turtur, imitating its call.
Old Occitan
tortuga
Old French
tortüe
Middle English
tortou
English, today
turtle
Built from
Modification of Middle English tortou, tortu, from Old French tortüe (under the influence of Middle English turtel, turtur (“turtledove”), see Etymology 2 below), from Old Occitan tortuga (compare Spanish tortuga), the same source of tortoise (see there for more). Displaced native Old English byrdling (See birdling).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA