Definition

1. Noun:

   • A long, pointed tooth: A specialized elongated tooth that projects beyond the mouth, used for fighting, digging, or display. This is especially characteristic of animals like elephants, walruses, and wild boars.
   • The material of a tusk: The hard, smooth, ivory-colored dentine that constitutes the main substance of tusks from animals like elephants and walruses.

2. Verb:

   • To remove the tusks from an animal: To extract or take out the tusks, often to prevent poaching or for ivory collection.
   • To gore or pierce: To stab or wound with a horn or tusk.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The elephant's tusk was over two meters long.
  • Poachers hunt elephants for their valuable tusks.
  • The walrus uses its tusks to haul itself onto ice.

• Verb:

  • Conservationists sometimes tusk rhinos to deter poachers.
  • The wild boar tusked the ground, searching for roots.
  • The enraged elephant nearly tusked the vehicle.

Advanced Usage

• "To be long in the tusk": An idiom describing an old elephant, and by extension, an old or experienced person.
  • That politician is long in the tusk; he's seen many elections.

Variants and Related Words

• Tusked (adj): Having tusks.
  • A tusked walrus.
• Tusker (n): An animal, especially a male elephant, with well-developed tusks.
  • The old tusker was a legend in the region.

Synonyms

• Ivory (n): Specifically refers to the hard, white material from tusks, especially of elephants.
• Fang (n): A long, pointed tooth, especially of a carnivorous animal, used for biting and tearing. (Note: 'Fang' typically refers to canine teeth, not the same as the specialized 'tusk').

Related Phrasal Verbs

(This word does not commonly form phrasal verbs.)

Related Idioms

• "To show one's tusks": To reveal one's aggressive or threatening intentions.
  • During the negotiation, he finally showed his tusks and made his true demands clear.

Noun

1. a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog
2. a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

Verb

1. remove the tusks of animals
   • tusk an elephant
2. stab or pierce with a horn or tusk
   • the rhino horned the explorer