soft-shelled turtle
- noun
- /sɔft-ʃɛld ˈtɜrtl/
:
tortuga de caparazón blando
- In the pond, the soft-shelled turtle quickly swam to the surface, searching for food.
Examples
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The soft-shelled turtle's flat body allows it to glide effortlessly through the water.
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The Chinese soft shell turtle has what sounds like a pretty gross habit.
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Many people are unaware that the soft-shelled turtle can deliver a painful bite if provoked.
Synonyms
1
4.8
A jacket made from flexible fabric that keeps out wind and rain or a turtle with a soft shell
A turtle that lives in water with a flat flexible shell, thick skin, and a strong bite
A river turtle with a flat, smooth, rubbery shell that lives in flowing water
A freshwater turtle with a soft, warty shell that lives in calm rivers and lakes
A river turtle with a warty shell that lives in the western United States
How Armored
Surface Forms
Morphology
soft-shelled + turtle
The noun phrase is fully compositional: 'soft-shelled' (soft + shelled) describes the quality of the turtle's shell, so a learner who knows 'soft' and 'turtle' (and can relate 'shelled' to 'shell') can infer it is a turtle with a soft or flexible shell. This follows a common adjective + noun compounding pattern found cross-linguistically, making the meaning directly derivable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Soft-shelled turtle gets its name from the animal's shell: unlike most turtles it has a flat, flexible 'shell' covered by leathery skin, so the words soft and shelled describe what it looks like.