What is "kangaroo"

kangaroo \kan"ga*roo"\, n. [Said to be the native name.] (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of jumping marsupials of the family Macropodid[ae]. They inhabit Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands, They have long and strong hind legs and a large tail, while the fore legs are comparatively short and feeble. The giant kangaroo ( Macropus major) is the largest species, sometimes becoming twelve or fourteen feet in total length. The tree kangaroos, belonging to the genus Dendrolagus, live in trees; the rock kangaroos, of the genus Petrogale, inhabit rocky situations; and the brush kangaroos, of the genus Halmaturus, inhabit wooded districts. See Wallaby.

Kangaroo apple (Bot.), the edible fruit of the Tasmanian plant Solanum aviculare.

Kangaroo grass (Bot.), a perennial Australian forage grass ( Anthistiria australis).

Kangaroo hare (Zo["o]l.), the jerboa kangaroo. See under Jerboa.

Kangaroo mouse. (Zo["o]l.) See Jumping mouse, under Jumping.

1770, used by Capt. Cook and botanist Joseph Banks, supposedly an aborigine word from northeast Queensland, Australia, usually said to be unknown now in any native language. However, according to Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon ("The Languages of Australia," Cambridge, 1980), the word probably is from Guugu Yimidhirr (Endeavour River-area Aborigine language) /gaNurru/ "large black kangaroo."In 1898 the pioneer ethnologist W.E. Roth wrote a letter to the Australasian pointing out that gang-oo-roo did mean 'kangaroo' in Guugu Yimidhirr, but this newspaper correspondence went unnoticed by lexicographers. Finally the observations of Cook and Roth were confirmed when in 1972 the anthropologist John Haviland began intensive study of Guugu Yimidhirr and again recorded /gaNurru/. [Dixon] Kangaroo court is American English, first recorded 1850 in a Southwestern context (also mustang court), from notion of proceeding by leaps.

n. 1 A member of the Macropodidae family of large marsupials with strong hind legs for hopping, native to Australi

1. (from 18th c.) 2 (context Canada attributive English) A hooded jacket with a front pocket, usually of fleece material, a kangaroo jacket. v

2. 1 To practice kangaroo care on an infant; to hold a premature infant against the skin. 2 To hunt kangaroo.

n. any of several herbivorous leaping marsupials of Australia and New Guinea having large powerful hind legs and a long thick tail

is an arcade platform game that was released in 1982. It was manufactured by Sun Electronics and distributed by Atari. Kangaroo is one of the first arcade games similar in style to Donkey Kong without being a direct knock-off. The player takes the role of a mother kangaroo wearing boxing gloves, who is trying to rescue her son from fruit-throwing monkeys.

Unusually for a platformer, there is no jump button. Instead, the player pushes up—or up and diagonally—to jump.

A kangaroo is a large marsupial which is endemic to Australia.

Kangaroo may also refer to:

A Kangaroo was a World War II Commonwealth or British armoured personnel carrier (APC), created by conversion of a tank chassis. Created as an expedient measure by the Canadian Army Kangaroos were so successful that they were soon being used by British forces.

Their ability to manoeuvre in the field with the tanks was a major advantage over earlier designs, and led to the dedicated APC designs that were introduced by almost all armies immediately after the war.

Kangaroo is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1923. It is set in Australia.

Kangaroo is the name of two fictional characters, supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Kangaroo is a 1987 Australian drama film directed by Tim Burstall and based on a novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence.

The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to Australia. The Australian government estimates that 34.3 million kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in 2011, up from 25.1 million one year earlier.

As with the terms " wallaroo" and " wallaby", "kangaroo" refers to a polyphyletic grouping of species. All three refer to members of the same taxonomic family, Macropodidae, and are distinguished according to size. The largest species in the family are called "kangaroos" and the smallest are generally called "wallabies". The term "wallaroos" refers to species of an intermediate size. There is also the tree-kangaroo, another genus of macropod, which inhabits the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, far northeastern Queensland and some of the islands in the region. A general idea of the relative size of these informal terms could be:

• wallabies: head and body length of 45–105 cm and tail length of 33–75 cm; The dwarf wallaby (the smallest member) length is 46 cm and weigh of 1.6 kg;
• tree-kangaroos: from Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo body and head length of 48–65 cm, tail of 60–74 cm, weigh of 7.2 kg (16 lb) for males and 5.9 kg (13 lb) for females; to the grizzled tree-kangaroo length of 75–90 cm (30 to 35 in) and weight of 8–15 kg (18–33 lb);
• wallaroos: the black wallaroo, the smallest by far, with a tail length of 60–70 cm and weight of 19–22 kg for males and 13 kg for females;
• kangaroos: a large male can be 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall and weigh 90 kg (200 lb).

Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development.

The large kangaroos have adapted much better than the smaller macropods to land clearing for pastoral agriculture and habitat changes brought to the Australian landscape by humans. Many of the smaller species are rare and endangered, while kangaroos are relatively plentiful.

The kangaroo is an unofficial symbol of Australia and appears as an emblem on the Australian coat of arms and on some of its currency and is used by some of Australia's well known organisations, including Qantas and the Royal Australian Air Force. The kangaroo is important to both Australian culture and the national image, and consequently there are numerous popular culture references.

Wild kangaroos are shot for meat, leather hides, and to protect grazing land. Although controversial, harvesting kangaroo meat has some environmental advantages to limit over-grazing and the meat has perceived health benefits for human consumption compared with traditional meats due to the low level of fat on kangaroos.

Kangaroo was the working title for a proposed video on demand platform offering content from BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC), ITV.com and Channel 4's 4oD (collectively UK VOD LLP), initially expected to launch in 2008, but blocked by the Competition Commission in 2009. Following the Commission's rejection of the bid, the technology platform was put up for sale, and the broadcasters then moved on to Project Canvas and YouView.

The bidders included Orange (who pulled out) and Arqiva. The project was bought by Arqiva for about £8 million on 23 July 2009, promising to launch in the 'coming months'. It was launched as SeeSaw in February 2010 but was shut down in October 2011.

Kangaroo is a 2007 Malayalam film made in India, by Raj Babu starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kavya Madhavan. This film was well noted for having a lot of touch of Knanaya background.

Kangaroo is a 1952 American Technicolor film directed by Lewis Milestone. It is also known as The Australian Story (American subtitle). The first Technicolor movie filmed on-location in Australia. Strong winds on location forced Milestone to re-dub much of the exterior dialogue.

Kangaroo was remade in Africa as The Jackals in 1967.

Kangaroo is a 2015 Tamil film directed by Samy and produced by V House Productions. The film features newcomers Arjuna, Sri Priyanka and Varsha Ashwathi in the lead roles, with singer Srinivas composing the film's music. The film was released on 24 April 2015.