Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Either of two aquatic, insectivorous, molelike mammals, Desmana moschata of eastern Europe and western Asia or Galemys pyrenaicus of southwest Europe, having dense brownish fur, a long snout, and a flattened scaly tail.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A musk-shrew or musk-rat: the name of two distinct species of aquatic insectivorous mammals of the genus Myogale or Galemys, constituting the subfamily Myogalinæ (which see).
- noun [capitalized]
- noun A generic name of the musk-shrews.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) An amphibious, insectivorous mammal found in Russia (
Myogale moschata ). It is allied to the moles, but is calledmuskrat by some English writers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
aquatic orsemi-aquatic insectivore of themole family, found inEurope .
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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A desman essentially is one of two species of aquatic moles Russian Desmana moschata, or Pyrenean, Galemys pyrenaicus, though they look sort of like a cross between an otter, a mole and Jimmy Durante.
Open thread: questions and explanations - The Panda's Thumb 2009
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The ecoregion hosts other rare and threatened small mammals, such as the snow vole (Microtus nivalis), the Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus), and the endemic Cantabrian hare (Lepus castroviejoi).
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The insectivorous Pyrenean desman Galemys pyrenaicus, occurs in lowland elevation.
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I like to think that it looked like a giant desman, but that only helps if you know what a desman is.
Archive 2006-02-01 Darren Naish 2006
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Also present are wild boar (Sus scrofa), chamois (Rupicapra parva), red deer (Cervus elaphus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and seldom seen, the Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus).
chained_bear commented on the word desman
"...his first sight of St. Dabeoc's heath when he was seven, of a dell filled with Gold of Pleasure the next year, and of the Pyrenean desman (that rare ill-natured cousin to the shrew) only a few weeks after that!"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Truelove, 185
March 11, 2008