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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pachyderm
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He then elects to take his new pet to California, but he only has five days to unload his pachyderm.
▪ High slung, low slung, wobbly, pointy, pert, pigeon or pachyderm.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
pachyderm

pachyderm \pach"y*derm\ (p[a^]k"[i^]*d[~e]rm), n. [Cf. F. pachyderme.] (Zo["o]l.) Any of various nonruminant hoofed mammals having very thick skin, including the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, one of the Pachydermata.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pachyderm

1838, from French pachyderme (c.1600), adopted as a biological term 1797 by French naturalist Georges Léopole Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert, Baron Cuvier (1769-1832), from Greek pachydermos "thick-skinned," from pachys "thick, large, massive," from PIE *bhengh- "thick, fat" (cognates: Sanskrit bahu- "much, numerous" Avestan bazah- "height, depth," Hittite pankush "large," Old Norse bingr "heap," Old High German bungo "a bulb," Lithuanian biess "thick") + derma "skin" (see derma).

Wiktionary
pachyderm

n. 1 Someone (or something) with thick skin. It is used for animals such as an elephant or a hippopotamus. 2 (context obsolete zoology English) A member of the obsolete taxonomy order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, pig and horse. 3 (context informal English) An elephant 4 (context idiomatic English) A person that is not affected by (does not care about) what others say about him or her. 5 (context idiomatic English) Someone who is insensitive.

WordNet
pachyderm

n. any of various nonruminant hoofed mammals having very thick skin: elephant; rhinoceros; hippopotamus

Wikipedia
Pachyderm

Pachyderm may refer to:

  • Any of the Pachydermata, an obsolete 19th-century taxonomic order of mammals which included elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses
  • Pachyderm Studio, a recording studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota
  • Pachyderma, a skin condition

Usage examples of "pachyderm".

I had to lead him by his trunk, out the Pachyderm House door, through which he barely fitted and where his presence scattered those conniving gibbons.

Even Numa the lion slunk growling to one side as the mighty pachyderm passed.

Fergusson insisted that they obtain a pachyderm specimen so that he could perform meticulous physiognomic measurements on the size and thickness of the ears, the biological hydraulics of the trunk, and the protective qualities of the hide.

He returned to his mount and led the great woolly black pachyderm down to the water to drink.

I had enjoyed far more bizarre experiences, but nothing quite like holding a conversation about the socioeconomics of dream-visions on the rolling back of a gigantic pachyderm with a mythological hero who had enjoyed the privilege of seeing his own future epic and was now bound to live it.

The great pachyderm had no trouble at all carrying her extra passengers, and I was surprised at our pace.

Raising his arms from where he stood beside that great black pachyderm, he flung back his head and sang again.

I was hauled bodily up as the two men mounted the massive pachyderm who waited impatiently for us.

I longed to draw my sword, to run to his assistance, and then I realized it was a beast with him, his trusty pachyderm, Bes.

But now, through the insights of the second superstring revolution, physicists have realized that M-theory is the unifying pachyderm of the five string theories.

The panic-stricken pachyderm, already running in fear from the fire and confronted with the smell of smoke ahead, looked for an escape.

The two Surety agents who were assigned to Coaid Westley disappeared while on duty and were eventually found trampled beyond easy recognition in the pachyderm exhibit at the Interplanetary Zoo.

They moan, passing upon the clouds, horned and capricorned, the trumpeted with the tusked, the lionmaned, the giantantlered, snouter and crawler, rodent, ruminant and pachyderm, all their moving moaning multitude, murderers of the sun.

Cheers roared out with each pachyderm that fell, and great lizards ran across the sands to tear into the beasts.

It caught a rhino in its vicious mouth, and the pachyderm disappeared.