American red squirrel
- noun
- /əˈmɛrɪkən rɛd ˈskwɜrəl/
- Specialized
:
ardilla roja americana
- Unlike the larger gray squirrel, the American red squirrel prefers evergreen forests and builds its nest in tree branches.
Examples
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The American red squirrel is well known for its rapid movements and loud chattering calls.
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During our hike in the forest, we spotted an American red squirrel gathering pine cones.
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Look at that American red squirrel climbing the tree!
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The American red squirrel is known for its bushy tail.
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During our hike in the forest, we spotted an American red squirrel gathering pine cones.
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The American red squirrel is well known for its rapid movements and loud chattering calls.
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Unlike the larger gray squirrel, the American red squirrel prefers evergreen forests and builds its nest in tree branches.
Synonyms
2
3.1
A small animal that lives in trees with reddish fur and a bushy tail
A small reddish tree squirrel that lives in northern United States and Canada forests
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning (a red-colored squirrel from America) is directly and transparently derived from the constituents 'American' (from America), 'red' (color), and 'squirrel' (arboreal rodent) with no idiomatic shift. This simple adjective + adjective + noun composition follows a common cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the individual words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
American red squirrel is a simple picture name: American shows where it lives, red describes its fur, and squirrel tells you it is a small tree animal that gathers cones. So the name refers to a 'small tree-dwelling squirrel' found in the northern United States and Canada.