'Reptile' definitions:

Definition of 'reptile'

From: WordNet
noun
Any cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia including tortoises, turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators, crocodiles, and extinct forms [syn: reptile, reptilian]

Definition of 'Reptile'

From: GCIDE
  • Reptile \Rep"tile\, n.
  • 1. (Zool.) An animal that crawls, or moves on its belly, as snakes,, or by means of small, short legs, as lizards, and the like. [1913 Webster]
  • An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Zool.) One of the Reptilia, or one of the Amphibia. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: The amphibians were formerly classed with Reptilia, and are still popularly called reptiles, though much more closely allied to the fishes. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. A groveling or very mean person. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Reptile'

From: GCIDE
  • Reptile \Rep"tile\ (r?p"t?l;277), a. [F. reptile, L. reptilis, fr. repere, reptum, to creep; cf. Lith. reploti; perh. akin to L. serpere. Cf. Serpent.]
  • 1. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Hence: Groveling; low; vulgar; as, a reptile race or crew; reptile vices. [1913 Webster]
  • There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
  • And dislodge their reptile souls From the bodies and forms of men. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]