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Glite Dictionary
cheek pouch

cheek pouch

7.2
A pocket inside the mouth of some animals used to store food temporarily
  • noun
  • /tʃik paʊtʃ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bolsa de mejilla
  • The squirrel used its cheek pouch to carry acorns back to its nest.

Examples

  • Or he would sit while a pair of striped chipmunks ran up his legs and perched on his knees, where they stuffed their cheek pouches with granola.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The hamster filled its cheek pouch with food before scurrying back to its cage.

  • After gathering seeds, the chipmunk stored them in its cheek pouch for later.

Synonyms

pouch
vscheek pouch
  • Specialized
15 4.6

A sac on an animal's body for holding young or food

is a mouth sac used to hold food temporarily in rodents

Surface Forms

cheek pouch singular
cheek pouches plural

Morphology

cheek + pouch

The meaning 'a membranous sac inside the mouth used for storing food' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'cheek' (the side of the face/mouth) + 'pouch' (a small sac). This body-part + container compound follows a common cross-linguistic pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

The noun cheek pouch is named for the small pocket inside an animal's mouth. The words cheek and pouch give a clear picture: a 'pouch' in the 'cheek' that animals use to 'store' or 'carry' food for a short time, so it means a sac animals use to hold food temporarily.