/ English Dictionary |
AUTOTOMY
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Spontaneous removal or casting off of a body part (as the tail of a lizard or claw of a lobster) especially when the organism is injured or under attack
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("autotomy" is a kind of...):
remotion; removal (the act of removing)
Derivation:
autotomic (of or relating to autotomy)
autotomize (cause a body part to undergo autotomy)