Definition of Digitigrade

1. Noun. An animal that walks so that only the toes touch the ground as e.g. dogs and cats and horses.


2. Adjective. (of mammals) walking on the toes with the posterior part of the foot raised (as cats, dogs, and horses do).
Category relationships: Mammal, Mammalian
Antonyms: Plantigrade

Definition of Digitigrade

1. a. Walking on the toes; -- distinguished from plantigrade.

2. n. An animal that walks on its toes, as the cat, lion, wolf, etc.; -- distinguished from a plantigrade, which walks on the palm of the foot.

Definition of Digitigrade

1. Adjective. (context: of an animal) Walking on the toes, putting the weight of the body mainly on the ball of the foot, with the back of the foot, or heel, raised. ¹

2. Adjective. (zoology specifically) Belonging to the ''Digitigrada'' of the taxonomic order ''Carnivora''. ¹

3. Adjective. (context: of feet or a manner of walking) Of, resembling, or pertaining to that of a digitigrade animal. ¹

4. Noun. (chiefly in the plural) A digitigrade animal, such as a dog or a cat; an animal that walks on its toes. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Digitigrade

1. [adj]

Medical Definition of Digitigrade

1. Walking on the toes; distinguished from plantigrade. Origin: L. Digitus finger, toe + gradi to step, walk: cf. F. Digitigrade. An animal that walks on its toes, as the cat, lion, wolf, etc.; distinguished from a plantigrade, which walks on the palm of the foot. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Digitigrade

digitate
digitate dermatosis
digitate impressions
digitate wart
digitated
digitately
digitating
digitation
digitationes hippocampi
digited
digiterati
digitgrade
digiti
digiti hippocratici
digitiform
digitigrade (current term)
digitigrade mammal
digitigrades
digitin
digitipartite
digitisation
digitisations
digitise
digitised
digitiser
digitisers
digitises
digitising
digitizability
digitizable

Literary usage of Digitigrade

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge by Charles Knight (1843)
"1667. quently completely digitigrade. But th»> most distinctive character of the group consists in an opening near the tail, leading into a double cavity of ..."

2. Popular Science Monthly (1906)
"If by variation, the digitigrade position became gradually, or suddenly, the fixed posture of the foot in progression, the structure of the digits would ..."

3. Elements of Geology: A Text-book for Colleges and for the General Reader by Joseph Le Conte (1903)
"... first, from plantigrade to digitigrade; second, from short-footed digitigrade to ... ie, increasing elevation of the heel; third, from digitigrade to ..."

4. Zoology of the Bible by Harland Coultas (1876)
"THE digitigrade CARNIVORA. THE LION (Felts Leo). The lion belongs to the natural order Carnivora, or flesh-eating animals, and to the family ..."

5. The English Cyclopaedia by Charles Knight (1866)
"in Zoology, a genus of digitigrade carnivorous mammals, founded by M. Isidore Geoffroy St. ... The leg* also are completely digitigrade ; that is to say, ..."

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