armadillo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a burrowing mammal of the Americas whose body is protected by jointed bony plates

   The armadillo curled defensively when the dog approached.

Borrowed from Spanish armadillo, a diminutive of armado ("armored"), literally "little armored one." The name refers to the animal's protective shell of jointed bony plates. Spanish armado ultimately comes from Latin armare ("to arm, equip").

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images