Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various rodents of the genus Microtus and related genera, found throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere and having a short muzzle and tail and small ears.
  • noun The winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand, as of bridge; a grand slam.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In card-playing, a winning of all the tricks played in one deal.
  • noun A shorttailed field-mouse or meadow-mouse; a campagnol or arvicoline; any member of the genus Arvicola in a broad sense.
  • In card-playing, to win all the tricks played in one deal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of micelike rodents belonging to Arvicola and allied genera of the subfamily Arvicolinæ. They have a thick head, short ears, and a short hairy tail.
  • noun A deal at cards that draws all the tricks.
  • intransitive verb (Card Playing) To win all the tricks by a vole.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the family Cricetidae.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various small mouselike rodents of the family Cricetidae (especially of genus Microtus) having a stout short-tailed body and inconspicuous ears and inhabiting fields or meadows

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, probably from voler, to fly, from Old French, from Latin volāre, to fly.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for obsolete volemouse, perhaps from Norwegian *vollmus : Old Norse völlr, field + Old Norse mūs, mouse.]

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Examples

  • We'd have been to him what a very slow and stupid meadow vole is to a hawk.

    When dinosaurs ruled the earth, a Christmas story 2008

  • We'd have been to him what a very slow and stupid meadow vole is to a hawk.

    Lance Mannion: 2008

  • Another ‘100 years’ vole is the highly distinctive Balkan snow vole or Martino’s snow vole Dinaromys bogdanovi (Martino, 1922), originally named as a species of Microtus but awarded its own genus in 1955.

    Archive 2006-10-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Another ‘100 years’ vole is the highly distinctive Balkan snow vole or Martino’s snow vole Dinaromys bogdanovi (Martino, 1922), originally named as a species of Microtus but awarded its own genus in 1955.

    The first new European mammal in 100 years? You must be joking Darren Naish 2006

  • Seven-year-olds Gracie Stahura and Sophia Husack lean over their prize - the tiny skeletal remains of a tiny rodent called a vole.

    Volunteers Keep Hands-On Science Alive in US Classrooms 2011

  • If your mum thought it a rat, I think the vole is the smaller of the two.

    Mystery Mammal 2006

  • This vole, which is described and figured by Milne-Edwards, is supposed to have been found in Afghanistan from a specimen in

    Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Robert Armitage Sterndale 1870

  • The vole, which is not a rat, is a goodly sight, and the smooth round dormouse (or sleep-mouse, as the children call it) is a favourite gift imprisoned in an old tea-pot.

    John Keble's Parishes Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • A vole is a single-bite snack to a coyote, he had the opportunity to eat him several times during this encounter but didn't.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

  • A vole is a single-bite snack to a coyote, he had the opportunity to eat him several times during this encounter but didn't.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Digg 2010

Comments

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  • Not (necessarily) to be confused with love. Unless, of course, you happen to be a vole.

    April 16, 2009

  • On the internet, nobody knows...

    April 16, 2009