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Opossum   /oʊpˈɑsəm/   Listen
noun
Opossum  n.  (Zool.) Any American marsupial of the genera Didelphys and Chironectes; called also possum. The common species of the United States is Didelphys Virginiana. Note: Several related species are found in South America. The water opossum of Brazil (Chironectes variegatus), which has the hind feet, webbed, is provided with a marsupial pouch and with cheek pouches. It is called also yapock.
Opossum mouse. (Zool.) See Flying mouse, under Flying.
Opossum shrimp (Zool.), any schizopod crustacean of the genus Mysis and allied genera. See Schizopoda.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Opossum" Quotes from Famous Books



... that might go shuffling across, an opossum, or a snake going to the lake. Now are you frightened so that you will ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter

... or Sloth, a singular animal of the Opossum species, having a false belly, was found by the natives, and brought into the town alive, on the 10th of August, 1803. This is a very singular animal; for when it ascends a tree, at which it is astonishingly expert, ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann

... Each grade or generation has its own totem-animal. For instance: Opossum, emu, wolf, bear, etc., after which the group is named. The totem-animal frequently enjoys great honor. It is held sacred with the respective group, and its members may neither kill the animal, nor eat its flesh. The totem-animal ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... xvii.] that the holding of a fellow-creature in bondage, and exploiting him for one's own advantage, even under the lash, was, until recently, not a crime in the eye of the law even in the most civilized states. On the other hand, it may be a crime to eat a female opossum. [Footnote: Ibid., I, chapter iv, p. 124.] The impressive imperative: Thou shalt not! appears to bear unmistakable reference ...
— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton

... Marsupialia,[153] is furnished with a pouch, into which the young are received and nourished at a very early period of their existence. The first species of the group, known to voyagers and naturalists, was the celebrated opossum of North America, whose instinctive care to defend itself from danger causes it to feign the appearance of death. As the great continent of Australia became known, it was found that the great mass of its mammalia, from the gigantic kangaroo to the pigmy, mouse-like potoroo, belonged to this ...
— Heads and Tales • Various


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