Crossword clues for prehensile
prehensile
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prehensile \Pre*hen"sile\, a. [L. prehensus, p. p. of prehendere to lay hold of, seize; pre- (equiv. to prae before) + hendere (in comp.), akin to E. get: cf. F. pr['e]hensile. See Get, and cf. Prison, Prize, n.] Adapted to seize or grasp; seizing; grasping; as, the prehensile tail of a monkey.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1771, from French préhensile "adapted for grasping" (Buffon), from Latin prehensus, past participle of prehendere "to grasp, seize, get hold of," from prae- "before" (see pre-) + -hendere, from PIE root *ghend- "to seize, take" (see get (v.)). Latin -hendere is related to hedera "ivy," via notion of "clinging."
Wiktionary
a. (context zoology English) Able to take hold of and clasp objects; adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object.
WordNet
adj. adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object; "a monkey's prehensile tail" [ant: nonprehensile]
having a keen intellect; "poets--those gifted strangely prehensile men"- A.T.Quiller-Couch
immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth; "they are avaricious and will do anything for money"; "casting covetous eyes on his neighbor's fields"; "a grasping old miser"; "grasping commercialism"; "greedy for money and power"; "grew richer and greedier"; "prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees" [syn: avaricious, covetous, grabby, grasping, greedy]
Usage examples of "prehensile".
Seth tucked his head and rolled, but his long, prehensile toes spilled over sideways as he tumbled in the grass.
He turned to see Nikko upside down to his perspective, clinging by his prehensile toes to the chamber wall.
There were two men and one woman, clinging to the tubal network with prehensile toes.
His long, prehensile toes were locked in the sucking goo, but he showed no sign of panic.
It was erect and vaguely manlike, but covered with a pelt of long grayish fur, and it had long prehensile fingers and a face like a masked monkey.
This family, as the name implies, possesses tails, though not prehensile ones.
Another pair of appendages terminated in prehensile organs as efficient as human hands, and a double pair of silvery-gray, membranous wings were folded along the sides of his streamlined, insectile body.
And yes, the camera-lens eyes went with the tapering, four-inch mirror-painted fingernails on his prehensile, boneless fingers.
You have a vagina to match the rest, and that organ is virtually prehensile, moving up and out of the way if need be.
Ken watched them with tremendous interest, for the first time realizing what an efficient prehensile organ the human hand could be.
The bankers and the larger businessmen, the landowners and dividend-drawers, the officials with their prehensile bottoms, will obstruct for all they are worth.
They had four tiny arms, looking deformed and shrunken, and two opposing pairs of ropy, coiling tentacles with prehensile tips.
If, then, habit can do this - and it is no small thing to develop a wonderfully perfect prehensile organ which can serve as a fifth hand - how much more may not habit do, even though unaided, as Mr.
The prehensile feathertips touched one of the keys on the lectern, and a section of New Republic criminal law appeared on the display above his head.
It grew bolder, feeling over big hand with its prehensile upper lip, not seeming to threaten, but dragging his fingers down against the goldcapped rooting tusks.