| 单词 | prehensile |
| 释义 | prehensile (once / 16601 pages) adj Prehensile means "able to grasp" and often refers to such body parts as claws, feet, and tails. Elephants curl their prehensile noses around objects in order to pick them up. Prehensile is an adjective that comes from a French word for “grasped.” Humans and other primates (like monkeys, lemurs, and gorillas) have prehensile hands with curling fingers for grasping — a definite advantage over dogs, for instance, who can’t use a pencil when poetic inspiration strikes them. Prehensile can also mean "greedy" or "grasping for riches." WORD FAMILYprehensile: nonprehensile, prehensilely USAGE EXAMPLESNow, these gangly storybook giraffes, with their long necks, legs, eyelashes, and prehensile purple tongues, have to worry too about what species they are. Science Magazine(Sep 08, 2016) It is no accident that the metonym for language is a tongue, not an ear, an eye, or a prehensile thumb. The New Yorker(Aug 01, 2016) Chameleons can wrap their prehensile tails around branches while climbing trees. National Geographic(Feb 20, 2016) 1adj adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an object a monkey's prehensile tail Ant nonprehensile not prehensile 2adj having a keen intellect "poets--those gifted strangely prehensile men"- A.T.Quiller-Couch Syn intelligent having the capacity for thought and reason especially to a high degree 3adj immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees Syn avaricious, covetous, grabby, grasping, greedy acquisitive eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas |
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