mud turtle

6.8

A small freshwater turtle that lives on the bottom of soft wet rivers and streams

noun
/mʌd ˈtɜːrtəl/

: tortuga de barro

He thought of the time he hooked a big mud turtle on his fishing line and slowly dragged the stubborn weight to shore.

Examples

I cast out again, aiming for a shady patch, but missed, my lure sinking into a section of eel grass that housed nothing but brim and mud turtles, neither of which I fancied at the end of my line.

Fiction book (1998)
While kayaking on the river, we spotted a mud turtle sunbathing on a log.
Now he was the mud turtle, and something was pulling him.

Fiction book (2001)
A mud turtle—small and black.

Fiction book (1999)
The biologist studied the mud turtle, noting its unique ability to thrive in muddy waters.
As we walked along the bank, we saw several mud turtles slowly moving across the muddy bottom of the stream.

Synonyms

turtle

vsmud turtle

385 1.0

An animal with a hard shell that lives in water or on land

is a small bottom-dwelling freshwater species of muddy rivers in North and Central America

Surface Forms

mud turtle singular

mud turtles plural

Morphology

mud + turtle

The noun-noun compound 'mud turtle' is compositionally built from 'mud' + 'turtle' and directly describes a turtle associated with muddy habitats; a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a turtle that lives in mud or muddy waters. This straightforward descriptive pattern is common in English and across languages, so the meaning is immediately derivable from the parts.

Etymology

The name mud turtle comes from a simple picture: the small turtle lives and hides in mud at the bottom of rivers and streams. That's why the term means 'a small turtle that lives in muddy rivers and streams'.