A nocturnal badger-sized burrowing mammal of Africa, with long ears, a tubular snout, and a long extensible tongue, feeding on ants and termites.
'Aardvarks can travel as far as 16 km a night, visiting termite mounds.'
'They also sometimes roost in the burrows of other mammals such as hedgehogs, porcupines, and aardvarks.'
'I'm off now to look up Dallas Zoo on the internet, and find out if they have aardvarks.'
'Like a little aardvark discovering a termite mound, her tiny nose twitched ecstatically.'
'An aardvark's tear membrane protects its eyes against termite bites.'
((n.) An edentate mammal, of the genus Orycteropus, somewhat
resembling a pig, common in some parts of Southern Africa. It burrows
in the ground, and feeds entirely on ants, which it catches with its
long, slimy tongue.)
Origin:
Late 18th century: from South African Dutch, from aarde ‘earth’ + vark ‘pig’.
