green lizard
- noun
- UK
:
lagarto verde
- The little green lizard climbed up the side of the tree, blending in with the leaves.
Examples
-
I watched a neon-green lizard zip up a blue concrete wall.
Fiction book (1997) -
On the wall is a little green lizard and a yellowed photograph of Ho Chi Minh.
Fiction book (2000) -
"A small green lizard, no longer than Cairo's hand, had crawled out onto the sidewalk to sun itself.
Fiction book (1999) -
He jumped when a green lizard with yellow spots fell out of the second overshoe and slithered back into the closet.
Fiction book (2001) -
I spotted a bright green lizard sunning itself on a rock in the garden.
-
As I walked through the forest, a green lizard quickly darted across the path.
Synonyms
A common green lizard in Europe about 30 centimetres long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'green lizard' is directly compositional: 'green' describes the color and 'lizard' names the animal, so a learner who knows both words will understand it as a lizard that is green. This simple adjective + noun modification is a basic, cross-linguistically common pattern and should be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Green lizard is a simple name: people called the animal a lizard and added green because its bright color helps it 'hide' among leaves. So green lizard today means this common bright, green reptile.
