Animal names/verbs

[Reemy]

English language is interesting in every way, I was thinking of the animal names that can be used as verbs giving meanings other than hunting that kind of animal. I made roughly this list consulting a dictionary, if you can think of other animal names to work as verbs with different meaning; you are welcome to add.


Wolf something down= to eat food very quickly= gobble
Dog: (of problem or bad luck) to cause you trouble for a long time. E.g. He had been dogged by bad health all his life.
Bear: to be able to accept and deal with something unpleasant.
Fox: to be too difficult for somebody to understand or solve; to trick or confuse somebody, the last question foxed even the experts.
Crow: to make repeated loud high sounds, especially early in the morning, to talk too proudly about something you have achieved=boast
Hawk: to try to sell things by going form place to place asking people to buy them= peddle.
Snake: to move like a snake.
Fish for something = to try to get something or find out something, to try to catch something using your hands.
Duck: To move your head or body downwards to avoid being hit or seen.
Rabbit on: to talk continuously about somebody or something that is not important or interesting.
Ape: to copy the way somebody else behaves or talks in order to make fun of them.





So, as thedaffodils suggested I put the updated list here:
1 Ape
2 badger
3 bat
4 Bear
5 beetle:
6 bug:
7 chicken out
8 cocoon:
9 cow
10 crab
11 crane
12 cricket:
13 Crow
14 Dog
15 Duck
16 eagle:
17 ferret:
18 Fish
19 fly:
20 Fox
21 frysmall fish)
22 gander
23 goosestep:
24 grouse
25 gull
26 hare
27 Hawk
28 henpeck
29 herd:
30 Hog
31 horse around
32 hound:
33 kite:
34 lark about:
35 leapfrog: (though leapfrog is not an animal, but is relevant to frog)
36 leech
37 louse up
38 man:
39 monkey:
40 parrrot
41 peacock
42 pig out
43 pigeonhole
44 Pony:
45 quail
46 Rabbit on
47 ram:
48 rat
49 roach:
50 rook
51 scalea kind of insect)
52 seal:
53 shark
54 skate
55 skunk
56 sleuth
57 snail:
58 Snake
59 Snipe
60 sponge
61 Squirrel
62 swallow
63 swan
64 toady:
65 turtle:
66 weasel out
67 whale
68 Wolf
69 yak

To be updated as soon as new entries added

 

[BobK]

Hog to [try to] have more than your fair share - 'Don't hog the biscuits. Pass them down to this end.'
Squirrel in the phrasal verb 'to squirrel away' - to hide something in a secret place
grouse to complain (often used in the jocular notice - especially on low beams in pubs) "Duck... or grouse'.

b

 

[BobK]

And another bird:

Snipe to make separate individual attacks from a position of security or camouflage (typically in a debate or argument, but the term 'sniper' is related): 'He didn't contribute much to the discussion, contenting himself with an occasional sniping remark.'

b

 

[Reemy]

Another one is
pig out ( informal ) gorge oneself with food.

 

[BobK]

Another bird:

parrrot - to repeat words without understanding them

b

 

[BobK]

This is not a word, but it's an idiom based on a fantastical belief about a particular animal: 'to be an ostrich' is to ignore an obvious danger - also 'to hide one's head in the sand' (they don't).

b

 

[BobK]

Another: sponge. A lot of sponges today are synthetic, but the natural ones are animals (invertebrates). "Sponge" works as an obvious verb ("He sponged the spilt drink off his trousers". But it also forms a phrasal verb - meaning to derive an income by begging: "When the inheritance ran out, he tracked down his cousin and sponged off him".

b

 

[thedaffodils]

[I'm not a teacher.]

cow (FRIGHTEN) to frighten someone into doing something, using threats or violence:

goosestep:

rat: Slang To desert or betray one's comrades by giving information:

leech:To attach oneself to another in the manner of a leech.

peacock: To strut about like a peacock; exhibit oneself vainly.

P.S. All definitions and example sentences are from my dictionary.

 

[BobK]

:up:And to goose of course (discussed recently in another thread): "The CEO goosed her by the photocopier".

b

 

[thedaffodils]

[I'm not a teacher.]

cat : v.tr.Nautical
To look for sexual partners; have an affair or affairs:
“catting around with every lady in sight”(Gore Vidal)

cock: To set the hammer of (a firearm) in a position ready for firing.
To set (a device, such as a camera shutter) in a position ready for use.
To tilt or turn up or to one side, usually in a jaunty or alert manner:
cocked an eyebrow in response to a silly question.
To raise in preparation to throw or hit:
cocked the bat before swinging at the pitch.
v.intr.
To set the hammer of a firearm in a position ready for firing.
To turn or stick up.
To strut; swagger.

bull
v.tr.
To push; force.
v.intr.
To push ahead or through forcefully:
“He bulls through the press horde that encircles the car”(Scott Turow)

clam up

butterfly: v.tr.
To cut and spread open and flat, as shrimp.

worm:
v.tr.
To make (one's way) with or as if with the sinuous crawling motion of a worm.
To work (one's way or oneself) subtly or gradually; insinuate:
She wormed her way into his confidence.
To elicit by artful or devious means. Usually used without of :
wormed a confession out of the suspect.
To cure of intestinal worms.
Nautical To wrap yarn or twine spirally around (rope).
v.intr.
To move in a manner suggestive of a worm.
To make one's way by artful or devious means:
He can't worm out of this situation.

henpeck :lol:

chicken out

hare: To move hurriedly, as if hunting a swift quarry:
went haring off after a lower-priced car.

bat: Informal To discuss or consider at length:
bat an idea around.

swan: v.intr.
To travel around from place to place:
“Swanning around Europe nowadays, are we?”(Jeffrey Archer)

seal:
To affix a seal to in order to prove authenticity or attest to accuracy, legal weight, quality, or another standard.

ferret:
v.tr.
To hunt (rabbits, for example) with ferrets.
To drive out, as from a hiding place; expel.
To uncover and bring to light by searching. Often used without :
ferret out the solution to a mystery.
To hound or harry persistently; worry.
v.intr.
To engage in hunting with ferrets.
To search intensively.

hound:
To pursue relentlessly and tenaciously.See Synonyms at harass
To urge insistently; nag:
hounded me until I agreed to cut my hair.

badger: To harry or pester persistently.

yak: To talk persistently and meaninglessly; chatter.

crane: To stretch one's neck toward something for a better view.

whale: to strike or hit vigorously 3 : to defeat soundly

crab: To direct (an aircraft) partly into a crosswind to eliminate drift.

snail: eg. The train snailed up the steep grade.

fly:


horse around

P.S. All definitions and examples are excerpted from my dictionary.

 

[RonBee]

How about "duck"? (Possibly from the movements a duck makes when it is going after food.)

 

[BobK]

Sorry Ron;-) - that was pretty low-hanging fruit, picked way back.

TD's list was very impressive.:up: A couple of them were new to me ('to whale' and to 'mole out'); and 'mole out' didn't have a definition. Is it "to extract a secret surreptitiously"? If so, I'd expect another animal - to weasel out (though, come to think of it, that not so much surreptiously as 'by hard/concentrated/faintly hostile/persistent effort' - "she didn't want to tell me, but in the end I weaseled it out of her".

b

 

[SUDHKAMP]

What about 'Shark' and 'Octopus'?

 

[thedaffodils]

TD's list was very impressive.:up: A couple of them were new to me ('to whale' and to 'mole out'); and 'mole out' didn't have a definition. Is it "to extract a secret surreptitiously"? If so, I'd expect another animal - to weasel out (though, come to think of it, that not so much surreptiously as 'by hard/concentrated/faintly hostile/persistent effort' - "she didn't want to tell me, but in the end I weaseled it out of her".

b

Hi BobK,

Thank you for your encouragement and correction. :-D

I just found "mole out" in my English-Chinese dictionary, which defines "mole out" as unearth something out. I've found there are several mistakes in it. Please let me delete it from my list.

 

[thedaffodils]

bug:
v.tr.
To annoy; pester.
To prey on; worry:
a memory that bugged me for years.
To equip (a room or telephone circuit, for example) with a concealed electronic listening device.
To make (the eyes) bulge or grow large.

cricket:
To play the game of cricket.

eagle:
v.tr.
To shoot (a hole in golf) in two strokes under par.
v.intr.
To score an eagle in golf.

beetle:
To make one's way or move like a beetle:
“Chambermaids . . . beetled from bedroom to bedroom loaded with . . . champagne”(Vanity Fair)


cocoon:
v.tr.
To envelop in or as if in a cocoon, as for protection from a harsh or unfriendly environment.
v.intr.
To retreat as if into a cocoon, as for security from a harsh or unfriendly environment.

 

[BobK]

...
beetle:
To make one's way or move like a beetle:
“Chambermaids . . . beetled from bedroom to bedroom loaded with . . . champagne”(Vanity Fair)
...

The significant feature of beetling is that there have to be several people doing it (as in that quote). Eyebrows can beetle as well - I don't know if this is derived from the beetle (insect) analogy or whether it's another word entirely - that just happens, coincidentally, to be a pun.

Incidentally, on the subject of unrelated words, 'sow' the (animal) and 'sow' (what you do with seeds) are unrelated (I should think) - and not even puns. The animal is /saʊ/, and the verb is /sǝʊ/ ;-)

b

 

[BobK]

Afterthought about weaseling; you can winkle out the truth as well; the winkle is a shell-fish - they're usually served in their shells. (In the 1950s there was a fashion for shoes with long/pointed toes, called winkle-pickers.)

b

 

[thedaffodils]

lark about:

to have a good time frolicking or playing pranks [origin unknown]
lark - definition of lark by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

kite:
v.intr.
To fly like a kite; soar or glide.
To get money or credit with a kite.
v.tr.
To use (a bad check) to sustain credit or raise money.
To increase the amount of (a check) fraudulently.

monkey:
v.intr.Informal
To play, fiddle, trifle, or tamper with something.
To behave in a mischievous or apish manner:
Stop monkeying around!
v.tr.
To imitate or mimic; ape.

toady:

A toady is not a pleasant individual,and the origin of the word makes being a toady even less pleasant.Toady is obviously derived from the word toad. The-y suffix can have diminutive force, and the earliest recorded sense (around 1690) oftoady (now obsolete), “a little or young toad,” illustrates this force. The sense we know has nothing to do with baby toadsbut rather with the practice of certain quacks or charlatans who claimed that they could cast out poison.Toads were thought to be poisonous,so these charlatans would have an attendant eat a toad or pretend to eat oneand then remove the poison from the attendant.Such an attendant is obviously a type of person who would do anything,and thustoadeater (first recorded 1629) was the perfect name for a flattering, fawning parasite. Toadeater and the verb derived from it, toadeat, influenced the sense of the noun and verb toad and the noun toady, so that both nouns could mean “sycophant”and the verbtoady could mean “to act like a toady to someone.”

leapfrog: (though leapfrog is not an animal, but is relevant to frog)

v.tr.
To jump over in or as if in leapfrog.
To advance (two military units) by engaging one with the enemy while moving the other to a position forward of the first unit.
To avoid by or as if by a roundabout route.
v.intr.
To move forward or progress in or as if in leapfrog

gull

: to take advantage of (one who is foolish or unwary) : deceive

 

[Anglika]

The kite is the thing you fly on a string, rather than the bird

 

[thedaffodils]

Hi Anglika,

Kite is the name of this kind of bird. Wikipedia has its introduction. Here's the URL link and its picture.:-D

Kite (bird - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)