Synonyms for kangaroos

Grammar : Noun

Spell : kang-guh-roo

Phonetic Transcription : ˌkæŋ gəˈru

Définition of kangaroos

Origin : 1770, used by Capt. Cook and botanist Joseph Banks, supposedly an aborigine word from northeast Queensland, Australia, usually said to be unknown now in any native language. However, according to Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon ("The Languages of Australia," Cambridge, 1980), the word probably is from Guugu Yimidhirr (Endeavour River-area Aborigine language) /gaNurru/ "large black kangaroo."
In 1898 the pioneer ethnologist W.E. Roth wrote a letter to the Australasian pointing out that gang-oo-roo did mean 'kangaroo' in Guugu Yimidhirr, but this newspaper correspondence went unnoticed by lexicographers. Finally the observations of Cook and Roth were confirmed when in 1972 the anthropologist John Haviland began intensive study of Guugu Yimidhirr and again recorded /gaNurru/. [Dixon]
Kangaroo court is American English, first recorded 1850 in a Southwestern context (also mustang court), from notion of proceeding by leaps.

As in marsupial : noun pouched mammal

Example sentences :

Not even the does and kangaroos that adorn the Park distracted or detained him?
Extract from : « The Book of Khalid » by Ameen Rihani

They saw some twenty or thirty kangaroos, of which they only killed three.
Extract from : « The Last Voyage » by Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

"I just wanted to see one," said Rectus, as if he had been talking of kangaroos or giraffes.
Extract from : « A Jolly Fellowship » by Frank R. Stockton

Below the shrubs, kangaroos were leaping and springing like dancing jacks.
Extract from : « In Search of the Castaways » by Jules Verne

"Kangaroos, every one of 'em," sobbed the unhappy passenger.
Extract from : « Andiron Tales » by John Kendrick Bangs

The kangaroos are found in various parts of Victoria, in their wild state.
Extract from : « Foot-prints of Travel » by Maturin M. Ballou

They were replaced by lesser dinies, approximately the size of kangaroos.
Extract from : « Attention Saint Patrick » by William Fitzgerald Jenkins

There are eight kinds of kangaroos, all of them herbivorous.
Extract from : « The Land of the Kangaroo » by Thomas Wallace Knox

Like the kangaroos, they use their fore-feet only to rest upon.
Extract from : « Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found » by Mayne Reid

He had ceased, too, for some time to keep a keen look-out for birds and kangaroos.
Extract from : « First in the Field » by George Manville Fenn

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019