TUSK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tusk mean? 

• TUSK (noun)
  The noun TUSK has 2 senses:

1. a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

2. a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog

  Familiarity information: TUSK used as a noun is rare.

• TUSK (verb)
  The verb TUSK has 2 senses:

1. stab or pierce with a horn or tusk

2. remove the tusks of animals

  Familiarity information: TUSK used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TUSK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

ivory; tusk

Hypernyms ("tusk" is a kind of...):

dentin; dentine (a calcareous material harder and denser than bone that comprises the bulk of a tooth)

Holonyms ("tusk" is a substance of...):

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

Derivation:

tusk (remove the tusks of animals)

tusk (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("tusk" is a kind of...):

tooth (hard bonelike structures in the jaws of vertebrates; used for biting and chewing or for attack and defense)

Meronyms (substance of "tusk"):

ivory; tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

Holonyms ("tusk" is a part of...):

tusker (any mammal with prominent tusks (especially an elephant or wild boar))

boar; Sus scrofa; wild boar (Old World wild swine having a narrow body and prominent tusks from which most domestic swine come; introduced in United States)

elephant (five-toed pachyderm)

Derivation:

tusk (remove the tusks of animals)

tusk (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

tusked (having tusks)

• TUSK (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stab or pierce with a horn or tusk

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

horn; tusk

Context example:

the rhino horned the explorer

Hypernyms (to "tusk" is one way to...):

pierce; thrust (penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Remove the tusks of animals

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

detusk; tusk

Context example:

tusk an elephant

Hypernyms (to "tusk" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

tusk (a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses)

 Context examples 

Yet as demand grew from the 12th century onwards, the research team discovered that Europe’s ivory supply shifted almost exclusively to tusks from the western lineage.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)

The famous Lewis chessmen are made of walrus tusk.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Beautifully ornamented tusks were documented as far away as the Middle East and India.

(Extinction of Icelandic walrus coincides with Norse settlement, National Science Foundation)

We saw many small animals, such as porcupines, a scaly ant-eater, and a wild pig, piebald in color and with long curved tusks.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When the boar perceived the tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and whetted tusks, and was about to throw him to the ground, but the hero fled and sprang into a chapel which was near and up to the window at once, and in one bound out again.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Roasted peacocks, with the feathers all carefully replaced, so that the bird lay upon the dish even as it had strutted in life, boars' heads with the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with silver foil, jellies in the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty which formed an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor—these were a few of the strange dishes which faced him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We suspect that decreasing values of walrus ivory in Europe meant more and more tusks were harvested to keep the Greenland colonies economically viable.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Tusks were also used to pay tithes to the church.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)

The mysterious disappearance of Greenland’s Norse colonies sometime in the 15th century may have been down to the overexploitation of walrus populations for their tusks, according to a study of medieval artefacts from across Europe.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

Some have suggested that trading commodities – most notably walrus tusks – with Europe may have been vital to sustaining the Greenlanders.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)