Definitions

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

  • noun A small Eurasian rodent of the subfamily Cricetinae, especially Mesocricetus auratus, having large cheek pouches and a short tail and often kept as a pet or used in laboratory research.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A murine or myomorphic rodent quadruped, of the family Muridœ and subfamily Cricetinæ, and of one of the genera Cricetus, Cricetomys, and Saccostomus.
  • noun Some other pouched rodent, as of the genus Geomys, more or less resembling a hamster.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A small European rodent (Cricetus frumentarius). It is remarkable for having a pouch on each side of the jaw, under the skin, and for its migrations. Hamsters are commonly kept as a pets.

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

  • noun A small, short-tailed Euroasian rodent, Cricetus frumentarius, often kept as a pet. It is remarkable for having a pouch on each side of the jaw, under the skin, and for its migrations.
  • noun zoology Any of various Old-world rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae.

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

  • noun short-tailed Old World burrowing rodent with large cheek pouches

Etymologies

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

[German, from Middle High German hamastra, perhaps from Old High German hamustro, of Slavic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1607; from German Hamster, from Old High German hamastra, hamustro, from Old East Slavic хомѣсторъ (choměstorŭ), хомѣстаръ (choměstarŭ), compound of (1) хомѣкъ (choměkŭ) ‘hamster’ (compare Russian хомяк (chomják), Polish chomik), from Balto-Slavic *kā̂mia (compare Latvian kāmis ‘hamster’, Lithuanian kãmas ‘rat’), and of (2) Baltic *stara (compare Lithuanian stãras ‘ground squirrel’).

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Examples

  • The case of the Syrian hamster is more complicated.

    Contagious cancer « Isegoria 2008

  • That hamster is obsessed with danger a wee bit too much.

    Must Watch: First Trailer for Disney's Bolt! « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • Instead, the hamster is now in the snake's cage, as you'll see if you click on the link.

    A Perfect Example, For Those Who Play Magic 2006

  • In the opposite corner, another hamster is backed up against the glass, feet kicking as he searches for an escape that Hamster already knows will not come.

    A Perfect Example, For Those Who Play Magic 2006

  • Uranyl acetate induces hprt mutations and uranium-DNA adducts in Chinese hamster ovaries.

    Infowars 2010

  • The interaction between citalopram and Kv1. 5 expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells was studied using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique.

    Naturejobs - All Jobs Hyang Mi Lee 2010

  • Montelukast demonstrated no evidence of mutagenic or clastogenic activity in the following assays: the microbial mutagenesis assay, the V-79 mammalian cell mutagenesis assay, the alkaline elution assay in rat hepatocytes, the chromosomal aberration assay in Chinese hamster ovary cells, and in the in vivo mouse bone marrow chromosomal aberration assay.

    Nachrichten Ticker - www.finanzen.net 2009

  • We have shown previously that AT1 receptor (AT1R) stimulation leads to diacylglycerol lipase-mediated transactivation of co-expressed CB1Rs in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

    Journal of Biological Chemistry current issue Turu, G., Varnai, P., Gyombolai, P., Szidonya, L., 2009

  • Reynolds JE, Yang T, Qian L, Jenkinson JD, Zhou P, et al. (1994) Mcl-1, a member of the Bcl-2 family, delays apoptosis induced by c-Myc overexpression in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Jessica Kao et al. 2009

  • Kedinger C, Simard R (1974) The alpha-amanitin on RNA synthesis in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Piyali Mukherjee et al. 2009

Comments

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  • A person associated with ham.

    October 15, 2008

  • If only.

    April 18, 2009