tusk
Plural: tusks
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
- One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.
- A small projection on a (tusk) tenon.
- A tusk shell.
- A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets, called teeth.
- A sharp point.
- The share of a plough.
- A fish, the torsk (Brosme brosme).
Verb
Verb Forms: tusked, tusking, tusks
- To wound or pierce with a tusk or long tooth.
- stab or pierce with a horn or tusk
- remove the tusks of animals
- "tusk an elephant"
- To dig up using a tusk, as boars do.
- To gore with the tusks.
- To bare or gnash the teeth.
Examples
- My opponent tried to TUSK my chances of winning by placing a blocking word.
- Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English tusk (also tux, tusch), from Old English tūx, tūsc (“canine tooth, tusk, molar”), from Proto-West Germanic *tų̄sk, *tunsk, from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz (“canine tooth”), extended form of *tanþs (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tusk (“tooth”), West Frisian tosk (“tooth”), Icelandic toskur (“a tusk, tooth”) (whence the Old Norse and Icelandic Ratatoskr and Ratatoskur respectively), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus, “tooth”) and *𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (*tundi, “thorn, tooth”). Doublet of tush. More at tooth.
Scrabble Score: 8
tusk: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordtusk: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tusk: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary