Jump to content

autotomy

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

[edit]

From auto- +‎ -tomy, after German Autotomie or French autotomie.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

autotomy (countable and uncountable, plural autotomies)

  1. (chiefly zoology) The spontaneous removal of a limb, tail etc, especially by some invertebrates as a self-defense mechanism.
    • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:
      She has dropped it by autotomy, like the tail or claw of a fleeing lizard, lobster, or starfish.

Hyponyms

[edit]

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]