feline
pronunciation
How to pronounce feline in British English:
UK [ˈfi:laɪn]
How to pronounce feline in American English:
US [ˈfiˌlaɪn]
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- Noun:
- any of various lithe-bodied round-headed fissiped mammals many with retractile claws
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- Adjective:
- of or relating to cats
Word Origin
- feline (adj.)
- "cat-like," 1680s, from Late Latin felinus "of or belonging to a cat," from Latin feles (genitive felis) "cat, wild cat, marten," which is of uncertain origin. Hence Modern Latin Felis, the cat genus. As a noun, "a feline animal" (popularly "a domestic cat") from 1861.
Example
- 1. Feline coat patterns fall into two categories : stripes and spots .
- 2. This feline wastrapped by a hunter high in the wakhan mountains of afghanistan .
- 3. But to know for sure she needed details , especially the faint claw mark beyond the toe pad that distinguishes canid from feline .
- 4. Like plasmodium , which cycles between mosquitoes and man , toxoplasma cycles between its rodent and feline hosts , living out different phases of its existence in each .
- 5. Meow arrived at the shelter weighing in at over 39 pounds , after his elderly owner could no longer care for the feline .