reptile

plural reptiles

1. A (typically scaly and egg-laying) cold-blooded vertebrate tetrapod animal, of the class Reptilia (excluding birds), such as a lizard, turtle, snake, crocodile, alligator, etc.First known use 19th c.
2. biologyAny member of the class Reptilia, including birds.
3. datedAny creeping or crawling animal, one that moves along close to the ground on its belly or on short legs, such as a lizard, snake, salamander, frog, toad, or scorpion.First known use 14th c.
4. datedAn animal belonging to either the class Reptilia or the class Amphibia.First known use 18th c.

   Synonyms: herptile, herp

5. datedproscribedAn ectothermic, scaly animal, whether sauropsid or synapsid, of the clade Amniota.

   mammal-like reptile

   1 more example

   Prior to the 1990s, the non-mammalian synapsids were considered true reptiles.

6. datedfigurativelyAn abject, grovelling, loathsome or repulsive person.First known use 18th c.

   "That reptile," whispered Pott, catching Mr. Pickwick by the arm, and pointing towards the stranger. "That reptile — Slurk, of the Independent!"

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the whole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous absurdity.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   […] If I pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should spurn such pity. Ellen, tell him how disgraceful this conduct is. Rise, and don’t degrade yourself into an abject reptile—don’t!

   1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXVII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC

1. not comparableCreeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.

   Synonyms: reptilious, creeping, crawling, reptitious, despicable

2. not comparableGrovelling; low; vulgar.

   a reptile race or crew    reptile vices

   2 more examples

   There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear.

   1795–1797, Edmund Burke, “(please specify |letter=1 to 4)”, in [Letters on a Regicide Peace], London: [Rivington]

   My herald shall appoint a week, / And let the recreant traitors seek / My tournay court—that there and then / I may dislodge their reptile souls / From the bodies and forms of men!

   1800, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Christabel. Part II.”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 34