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Glite Dictionary
🐻 An animal sleeper 🏠 A winter recluse
hibernator

hibernator

1 6.1
An animal that sleeps deeply during winter to survive the cold
  • noun
  • /ˈhaɪbərˌneɪtər/
translation icon : hibernador
  • Some hibernators like groundhogs will emerge from their burrows only when spring arrives.
  • true hibernators
  • other hibernators

Examples

  • At the same time, bears and other hibernators lose weight.

    Academic text (2007)

  • For instance, cold-temperature hibernators, such as bats and ground squirrels, put themselves through rigors that would kill us.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Bears and other hibernators enter a deep sleep during the winter to conserve energy.

  • As hibernators prepare for winter, they often gain extra fat to help them survive the colder months.

Surface Forms

hibernator singular
hibernators plural

Morphology

hibernator = hibernate (transparent) = hibernate + or

A regular agentive formation from the verb 'hibernate' denoting an animal that hibernates.

Etymology

The word hibernator comes from the root hibern- meaning 'winter', the same root in hibernate and hibernation. So a hibernator is an animal that 'winters' by sleeping or slowing down to survive the cold season.