Crossword clues for elephantine
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Elephantine \El`e*phan"tine\, a. [L. elephantinus of ivory, Gr. ?: cf. F. ['e]l['e]phantin.] Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant (commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread.
Elephantine epoch (Geol.), the epoch distinguished by the
existence of large pachyderms.
--Mantell.
Elephantine tortoise (Zo["o]l.), a huge land tortoise; esp., Testudo elephantina, from islands in the Indian Ocean; and T. elephantopus, from the Galapagos Islands.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, "huge," from Latin elephantinus "pertaining to the elephant," from elephantus (see elephant). Meaning "pertaining to elephants" is from 1670s. Earlier adjective was elephantic (1590s).
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of elephants. 2 Very large.
WordNet
adj. of great mass; huge and bulky; "a jumbo jet"; "jumbo shrimp" [syn: gargantuan, giant, jumbo]
Wikipedia
Elephantine ( or ; ; ; Kenzi Nubian: ) is an island in the Nile River in northern Nubia. It is a part of the modern city of Aswan, in southern Egypt. There are archaeological sites on the island.
Usage examples of "elephantine".
Dicky called him when he saw him on the morrow, because of the elephantine breeks he wore--was not averse to sending his Abyssinian slaves through the sugar-cane to waylay and rob, and worse, maybe.
The elephantine marble mantelpiece supported a huge clock of black marble, and between the two windows was a marble bust of the late Duke in a Gladstonian collar and a marble watch-chain.
Graham could not restrain a smile as he noted how the jumpiness of the little man contrasted with the elephantine indifference of the police sergeant.
Austin Bull who, after a Methodist boyhood, a decade as an eloquent and money-raising Episcopal minister, and a couple of years as secretary of an elephantine university, had, at forty-four, come to Kinnikinick as president.
He directed most of his conversation and elephantine wit at Sagra and was correspondingly disagreeable and sarcastic when he spoke to Gimmel Gora.
Facing the power of the rodent predator families, the elephantine posthumans had had to retain the power to flee.
It seemed to be pacing rapidly back and forth before her, turning with an abruptness that suggested bafflement rather than some elephantine attempt at cat-and-mouse, almost as if it had run into a barrier even more invisible than itself.
Giles, surnamed the Bantam, on account of some forgotten sally of his youth or infancy, moved and looked elephantine.
The altar of national concern, of annual sacrifice and oaths, which Diocletian had created in the Isla of Elephantine, was demolished by Justinian with less policy than] [Footnote 126: Procopius de Edificiis, l.
In a dosed environment they looked more elephantine than they had in Amos' shots from Bethel, more unstoppable.
Nothing constructive would come of them : the elephantine anxieties padded head to tail like a series of catch-phrases : parsecs, galactic federation, hyper-space, interpenetrators.
As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.
Pharaoh arrives in Karnak tomorrow, and my father will prevail upon him to order Tanus to take his squadron up-river to Elephantine and the cataracts.
The Selenites made way for our elephantine heavings, and seemed to twitter more volubly.
An elephantine semantic network sits down on his spectacles as soon as he asks for the site, crushing his surroundings into blocky pixellated monochrome that jerks as he looks around.