ALLIGATOR

ALLIGA'TOR, noun [The Latin word seems to be connected with lacertus, the arm; and the animal may be named from the resemblance of his legs to arms.]The American crocodile. This animal is of the lizard genus, having a long naked body, four feet, with five toes on the fore feet, and four on the hind, armed with claws, a serrated tail. The mouth is very large, and furnished with sharp teeth; the skin is brown, tough, and, on the sides, covered with tubercles. The largest of these animals grow to the length of seventeen or eighteen feet. They live in and about the rivers in warm climates, eat fish, and sometimes catch hogs, on the shore, or dogs which are swimming. In winter, they burrow in the earth, which they enter under water and work upwards, lying torpid till spring. The female lays a great number of eggs, which are deposited in the sand, and left to be hatched by the heat of the sun.

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alligator. Alligator, n. a large crocodile, a kind of pear

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Al″li‐ga′tor (�), n. [[Sp. el lagarto the lizard (el lagarto de Indias, the cayman or American crocodile), fr. L. lacertus, lacerta, lizard. See Lizard.]] 1. 1. (Zoöl.) A large carnivorous reptile of the Crocodile family, peculiar to America. It has a shorter and broader snout than the crocodile, and the large teeth of the lower jaw shut into pits in the upper jaw, which has no marginal notches. Besides the common species of the southern United States, there are allied species in South America.
2. 2. (Mech.) Any machine with strong jaws, one of which opens like the movable jaw of an alligator; as, (a) (Metal Working) a form of squeezer for the puddle ball; (b) (Mining) a rock breaker; (c) (Printing) a kind of job press, called also alligator press.
Alligator apple (Bot.), the fruit of the Anona palustris, a West Indian tree. It is said to be narcotic in its properties. Loudon. — Alligator fish (Zoöl.), a marine fish of northwestern America (Podothecus acipenserinus). — Alligator gar (Zoöl.), one of the gar pikes (Lepidosteus spatula) found in the southern rivers of the United States. The name is also applied to other species of gar pikes. — Alligator pear (Bot.), a corruption of Avocado pear. See Avocado. — Alligator snapper, Alligator tortoise, Alligator turtle (Zoöl.), a very large and voracious turtle (Macrochelys lacertina) inhabiting the rivers of the southern United States. It sometimes reaches the weight of two hundred pounds. Unlike the common snapping turtle, to which the name is sometimes erroneously applied, it has a scaly head and many small scales beneath the tail. This name is sometimes given to other turtles, as to species of Trionyx. — Alligator wood, the timber of a tree of the West Indies (Guarea Swartzii).