Bandicoot

Bandicoot
: miserable as a bandicoot Extremely unhappy. Bandicoots are small marsupials with long faces, and have been given a role in Australian English in similes that suggest unhappiness or some kind of deprivation. The expression 'miserable as a bandicoot' was first recorded in 1845. A person can also be as 'bald as a bandicoot', as 'blind as a bandicoot', or be isolated 'like a bandicoot on a burnt ridge'.

Australian idioms. 2014.

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  • Bandicoot — Ban di*coot, n. [A corruption of the native name.] (Zo[ o]l.) (a) A species of very large rat ({Mus giganteus}), found in India and Ceylon. It does much injury to rice fields and gardens. (b) A ratlike marsupial animal (genus {Perameles}) of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • bandicoot — ● bandicoot nom masculin (mot anglais, du telugu pandi koku, cochon rat) Nom commun à plusieurs mammifères marsupiaux. (Famille des péramélidés.) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • bandicoot — 1789, from Telegu pandi kokku, lit. pig rat. Properly a large and destructive Indian rat; applied from 1827 to a type of insectivorous Australian marsupial somewhat resembling it …   Etymology dictionary

  • bandicoot — ► NOUN ▪ a mainly insectivorous marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea. ORIGIN from an Indian language, meaning pig rat …   English terms dictionary

  • bandicoot — [ban′di ko͞ot΄] n. [< Telugu pandikokku, lit., pig rat] 1. a member of either genus (Bandicota and Nesokia, family Muridae) of large rats, found esp. in India and Sri Lanka, that destroy grain and root crops 2. any of an order (Peramelina) of… …   English World dictionary

  • Bandicoot — Peramelidae Péramélidés …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bandicoot — Taxobox name = BandicootsMSW3 Groves] image width = 200px regnum = Animalia phylum = Chordata classis = Mammalia infraclassis = Marsupialia ordo = Peramelemorphia (in part) subdivision ranks = Families and Genera subdivision = †Chaeropodidae *†… …   Wikipedia

  • bandicoot — Soon after white settlement in 1788 the word bandicoot (the name for the Indian mammal Bandicota indica) was applied to several Australian mammals having long pointed heads and bearing some resemblance to their Indian namesake. In 1799 David… …   Australian idioms

  • bandicoot — /ˈbændikut / (say bandeekooht) noun 1. any of various small, omnivorous, somewhat rat like Australian and New Guinean marsupials of the families Paramelidae and Peroryctidea. 2. any of the very large rats of the genus Bandicota, of India and Sri… …  

  • bandicoot — /ban di kooht /, n. 1. any of several large East Indian rats of the genus Nesokia. 2. any of several insectivorous and herbivorous marsupials of the family Peramelidae, of Australia and New Guinea: some are endangered. [1780 90; < Telugu pandi… …   Universalium

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