gerbil

English

Alternative forms

• gerbille, jerbil (dated)
• gerbill (obsolete)

Etymology

From French gerbille, from Latin gerbo, from Arabic جَرْبُوع (jarbūʕ) or يَرْبُوع (yarbūʕ, “jerboa”). Doublet of jerboa.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɝbl̩/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɜːbl̩/

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Homophone: Dyirbal
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)bəl

Noun

North African gerbil (Gerbillus campestris)

gerbil (plural gerbils)

1. A member of one of several species of small, jumping, mouselike rodents of the subfamily Gerbillinae, native to Africa, India, and Southern Europe.

Derived terms

• Anderson's gerbil
• antigerbil
• black-tailed gerbil
• Boehm's gerbil
• Burton's gerbil
• bushy-tailed hairy-footed gerbil
• Cape short-eared gerbil
• Cheesman's gerbil
• dune hairy-footed gerbil
• Emin's gerbil
• fat-tailed gerbil
• Flower's gerbil
• fringe-tailed gerbil
• gerbilarium
• gerbilectomy
• hairy-footed gerbil
• Harrington's gerbil
• Harwood's gerbil
• Hoogstraal's gerbil
• Indian gerbil
• James's gerbil
• Kemp's gerbil
• lesser short-tailed gerbil
• Mackilligin's gerbil
• Mauritanian gerbil
• midday gerbil
• Mongolian gerbil
• Namib brush-tailed gerbil
• Petter's gerbil
• Phillip's gerbil
• Przewalski's gerbil
• tamarisk gerbil
• Tarabul's gerbil
• Wagner's gerbil

Translations

small rodent

• Arabic: عَضَل m (ʕaḍal)
• Bulgarian: пясъчна мишка f (pjasăčna miška), песчанка f (pesčanka)
• Catalan: jerbu petit
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沙鼠 (shāshǔ)

• Danish: ørkenrotte
• Dutch: gerbil (nl) m, springmuis (nl) f renmuis f, woestijnrat (nl) f
• Esperanto: gerbilo
• Estonian: liivahiir
• Faroese: oyðimørkaíkorn n
• Finnish: gerbilli
• French: gerbille (fr) f
• Galician: xerbo (gl) m
• Georgian: მექვიშიები (mekvišiebi)
• German: Rennmaus (de) f, Wüstenrennmaus f, mongolische Rennmaus f
• Hungarian: futóegér, versenyegér
• Italian: gerbillo (it) m, ratto delle sabbie m
• Japanese: スナネズミ (sunanezumi), ジャービル (jābiru)
• Low German: rennmüüs
• Navajo: hóółtseiigi naʼatsʼǫǫsí
• Polish: myszoskoczek (pl) m, gerbil (pl) m, suwak (pl) m
• Portuguese: gerbilo m
• Romanian: gerbil (ro) m
• Russian: песча́нка (ru) f (pesčánka)
• Spanish: gerbillo (es) m, gerbil (es) m, merión m
• Swedish: ökenråtta (sv) c, gerbil c
• Vietnamese: chuột nhảy

Verb

gerbil (third-person singular simple present gerbils, present participle (US) gerbiling or (UK) gerbilling, simple past and past participle (US) gerbiled or (UK) gerbilled)

1. (intransitive) To rotate inside a monowheel or similar apparatus due to sudden acceleration or braking.
2. (intransitive, slang) To insert a small animal (typically a gerbil, supposedly) into one's rectum (a sexual practice in urban myth).

See also

• guinea pig
• hamster
• jerboa
• jird
• mouse
• rat

References

• “gerbil”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Bigler, Bilger, Gibler

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French gerbille.

Noun

gerbil m (plural gerbili)

1. gerbil

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	gerbil	gerbilul	gerbili	gerbilii
genitive-dative	gerbil	gerbilului	gerbili	gerbililor
vocative	gerbilule		gerbililor

Swedish

en gerbil

Alternative forms

• gerbill

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːl

Noun

gerbil c

1. a gerbil, especially a Mongolian gerbil (common as a pet)

   Synonym: ökenråtta

Declension

Declension of gerbil

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	gerbil	gerbils
	definite	gerbilen	gerbilens
plural	indefinite	gerbiler	gerbilers
	definite	gerbilerna	gerbilernas

References

• “gerbil”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)