tusk
pronunciation
How to pronounce tusk in British English:
UK [tʌsk]
How to pronounce tusk in American English:
US [tʌsk]
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- Noun:
- a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
- a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog
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- Verb:
- stab or pierce with a horn or tusk
- remove the tusks of animals
Word Origin
- tusk (n.)
- Old English tusc, also transposed as tux, "long, pointed tooth protruding from the mouth of an animal," cognate with Old Frisian tusk, probably from Proto-Germanic *tunthsk- (cognates: Gothic tunþus "tooth"), from an extended form of PIE *dent-, the root of tooth. But "there are no certain cognates outside of the Anglo-Frisian area" [OED].
Example
- 1. Mammoth 's tusk which was found during the construction .
- 2. It seems the fashion to lean a big tusk across a house 's front window .
- 3. Donald tusk 's government easily won re-election in poland .
- 4. Difficulties with the psl could give mr tusk another excuse for inaction .
- 5. Barring an economic upset , mr tusk has time on his side .