Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various South American rodents of the family Caviidae, including the guinea pigs, characteristically having a vestigial tail.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rodent of the genus Cavia or family Caviidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A rodent of the genera Cavia and Dolichotis, as the guinea pig (
Cavia cobaya ). Cavies are natives of South America. - noun (Zoöl.) The capybara.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
guinea pig .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun short-tailed rough-haired South American rodent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The cavy is a rodent that was domesticated in the Andes as a source of meat.
9: Domestic animals 1996
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Might be the same one spotted a few years ago, a Patagonian cavy was seen again loose near Aiken, South Carolina.
Archive 2009-05-01 2009
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Might be the same one spotted a few years ago, a Patagonian cavy was seen again loose near Aiken, South Carolina.
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Oregon teens found a Patagonian cavy running loose.
Archive 2008-04-01 2008
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Robertson had served as a colonel under Stuart, the report noted, and “I was convinced of his deficiency in the qualities essential to a bold, vigorous, and successful cavy commander in the ever-changing and complicated and extended operations of campaign.”
Cavalryman of the Lost Cause Jeffry D. Wert 2008
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Robertson had served as a colonel under Stuart, the report noted, and “I was convinced of his deficiency in the qualities essential to a bold, vigorous, and successful cavy commander in the ever-changing and complicated and extended operations of campaign.”
Cavalryman of the Lost Cause Jeffry D. Wert 2008
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Almost the same as -- you talk about the cavy, same type of back legs and front legs almost.
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They imagined that Magellan, when talking of an animal under the name of "conejos" in the Strait of Magellan, referred to this species; but he was alluding to a small cavy, which to this day is thus called by the Spaniards.
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They imagined that Magellan, when talking of an animal under the name of "conejos" in the Strait of Magellan, referred to this species; but he was alluding to a small cavy, which to this day is thus called by the Spaniards.
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KING: And our next animal in this segment is a cavy.
treeseed commented on the word cavy
The cavy (also commonly called the Guinea pig after its scientific name) is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia. Despite their common name, these animals are not pigs, nor do they come from Guinea. They are native to the Andes, and while no longer extant in the wild, they are closely related to several species that are commonly found in the grassy plains and plateaus of the region. The guinea pig plays an important role in the folk culture of many indigenous South American groups, especially as a food source, but also in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies. Since the 1960s, efforts have been made to increase consumption of the animal outside South America.
_Wikipedia
February 15, 2008