PROBOSCIS (proboscides)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: proboscides   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does proboscis mean? 

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

1. the human nose (especially when it is large)

2. a long flexible snout as of an elephant

  Familiarity information: PROBOSCIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROBOSCIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The human nose (especially when it is large)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

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

nose; olfactory organ (the organ of smell and entrance to the respiratory tract; the prominent part of the face of man or other mammals)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A long flexible snout as of an elephant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

proboscis; trunk

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

neb; snout (a long projecting or anterior elongation of an animal's head; especially the nose)

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

elephant (five-toed pachyderm)

mammoth (any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks)

 Context examples 

To a man of philosophic temperament like myself the blood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis and its distending stomach, is as beautiful a work of Nature as the peacock or, for that matter, the aurora borealis.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)