lizard

From Middle English lesarde, lisarde, from Anglo-Norman lusard, from Old French lesard (compare French lézard), from Latin lacertus, which is of obscure origin. Displaced native Middle English aske, from Old English āþexe (> modern English ask, askard).

• (non-rhotic)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪz.əːd/, [ˈlɪz.əːd]
• (rhotic)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪz.ɚd/, [ˈlɪz.ɚd] ~ [ˈlɪz.ɹ̩d]

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

• (Indic)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈlɪzə(r)ɖ/, /lɪˈzɜ(r)ɖ/
  • IPA^(key): /lɪˈzɑ(ɾ)ɖ/ (spelling pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -ɪzə(ɹ)d
• Hyphenation: liz‧ard

lizard (plural lizards)

1. Any reptile of the order Squamata that is not a snake or part of †Mosasauria—typically characterised by a rounded torso, a short neck with an elevated head, a long tail and four limbs, although some species are legless.
   • a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Pan”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 169:

     The cicale above in the lime, / And the lizards below in the grass, / Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, / Listening to my sweet pipings.

   • 1851, John Ruskin, chapter XX, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § XXX, pages 223–224:

     The forms of the serpent and lizard exhibit almost every element of beauty and horror in strange combination; […]

   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

     Hooded rattlesnakes, horned toads, and lizards crawl in the dust and among the rocks.

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 139:

     When held in the hand, the lizard produces an amorous stimulus.

   • 2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:

     Pinned against my neighbours, I could feel small hands, fleeting as lizards, fluttering lightly through my pockets in search of money, mobile, wallet.

2. (chiefly in attributive use) Lizard skin, the skin of these reptiles.
   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Proof”, in The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.:

     Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby / Silver foil to trim your wedding gown

3. (colloquial) An unctuous person.
4. (colloquial) A coward.
5. (rock paper scissors) A hand forming a "D" shape with the tips of the thumb and index finger touching (a handshape resembling a lizard), that beats paper and Spock and loses to rock and scissors in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
6. (in compounds) A person who idly spends time in a specified place, especially a promiscuous female.

   lounge lizard; lot lizard; beach lizard; truck stop lizard

lizard

1. alternative form of lesarde