tusk

See also: Tusk

English
Walruses with tusks.
Men with elephant tusks.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈtʌsk/
  • Rhymes: -ʌsk

Etymology 1

From Middle English tusk (also tux, tusch), from Old English tūx, tūsc (“grinder, canine tooth, tusk”), from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz (“tooth”), extended form of Proto-Germanic *tanþs (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tusk (“tooth”), West Frisian tosk (“tooth”), Icelandic toskur (“a tusk, tooth”) (whence the Old Norse and Icelandic Ratatoskr and Ratatoskur respectively), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus, “tooth”) and *𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (*tundi, “thorn, tooth”). More at tooth.

Noun

tusk (plural tusks)

  1. One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar.
    Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.
  2. A small projection on a (tusk) tenon.
  3. A tusk shell.
  4. (carpentry) A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets, called teeth.
  5. A sharp point.
  6. The share of a plough.
Translations

Verb

tusk (third-person singular simple present tusks, present participle tusking, simple past and past participle tusked)

  1. To dig up using a tusk, as boars do.
  2. To gore with the tusks.
  3. (obsolete) To bare or gnash the teeth.

References
  • “tusk” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Etymology 2

You can help Wiktionary by providing a proper etymology.

Noun

tusk (plural tusks)

  1. A fish, the torsk (Brosme brosme).

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for tusk in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Ludian

Etymology

Related to Finnish tuska. Ultimately from Russian тоска́ (toská, “melancholy”).

Noun

tusk

  1. pain

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English tūx, from earlier tūsc, from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz. Compare tusshe.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /tusk/, /tuks/

Noun

tusk (plural tuskes)

  1. A tusk (protruding long tooth)
  2. Any long and sharp tooth.
  3. (rare) The end of a spear.

Derived terms

Descendants

References

Old Frisian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Cognate with Old English tūsc.

Noun

tusk m

  1. tooth

Inflection
Declension of tusk (masculine a-stem)
case singular plural
nominative tusk tuskar, tuska
accusative tusk tuskar, tuska
genitive tuskes tuska
dative tuske tuskum, tuskem

Descendants

Veps

Etymology

Related to Finnish tuska. Ultimately from Russian тоска́ (toská, “melancholy”).

Noun

tusk

  1. boredom
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