shield-toad

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From shield +‎ toad. Compare shelled-toad, shell-toad, shellpad, shell-paddock. Compare also West Frisian skyldpod (tortoise, literally shield-toad), Dutch schildpad (tortoise, literally shield-toad), German Schildkröte (tortoise, literally shield-toad), Swedish sköldpadda (tortoise), Icelandic sjaldbaka (turtle, literally shield-back).

Noun

shield-toad (plural shield-toads)

  1. (very rare, nonstandard, puristic) A turtle or tortoise.
    • 2010, Hugh Peter McGrath, Michael Comenetz, Valery's Graveyard:
      But we already know that a shield-toad is a Frenchman, while the sun is Apollo's shield.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:shield-toad.