tree toad

1 6.0

A small animal like a frog that lives in trees and has sticky pads on its toes

noun
/tri toʊd/

: sapo de los árboles

Back in the tent, we put it in a box and collected tree toads.
a three-toed tree toad
toed tree toad

Examples

The tree toad used its sticky pads to climb effortlessly up the tree trunk.
While hiking in the rainforest, we spotted a tree toad resting on a large leaf.
In the evenings, the tree toad croaked loudly from its perch high in the branches.

Synonyms

tree frog

vstree toad

4 3.4

A small frog that lives in trees with sticky pads on its toes for climbing

is similar but refers to a stouter, rougher skinned arboreal amphibian

tree-frog

vstree toad

2.8

A small frog that lives in trees and has sticky pads on its toes to climb

has identical meaning but is the alternative unhyphenated common form

genus Hyla

vstree toad

Specialized

9.5

A group of tree frogs that live in trees and often have bright colors

is the common name used for individual arboreal amphibian species

Surface Forms

tree toad singular

tree toads plural

Morphology

tree + toad

The meaning is directly compositional: 'tree' modifies 'toad' to indicate a toad that lives in or on trees (an arboreal toad). This noun–noun compounding follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern (e.g., 'tree frog'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

Tree toad comes from a simple picture: a toad living on a tree and using sticky pads on its toes to climb. So the name means 'a small toad that lives in trees'.