kangaroo

[kang-guh-roo] /ˌkæŋ gəˈru/
noun, plural kangaroos (especially collectively) kangaroo.
1.
any herbivorous marsupial of the family Macropodidae, of Australia and adjacent islands, having a small head, short forelimbs, powerful hind legs used for leaping, and a long, thick tail: several species are threatened or endangered.
Origin
1760-70; < Guugu Yimidhirr (Australian Aboriginal language spoken around Cooktown, N Queensland) gaŋ-urru large black or gray species of kangaroo
Related forms
kangaroolike, adjective
Examples from the web for kangaroo
  • These scientists are being tried in a kangaroo court of the general public.
  • kangaroo paw adds a touch of drama to the palette of olive and gray-greens.
  • Back in the den, there was this kangaroo giving birth on tv.
  • The killings were semi-legal, with kangaroo courts quickly convened and a majority of the harmless prisoners released.
  • Researchers first recognized the value of turbinals three decades ago in kangaroo rats.
  • Either way if you actually mix a little vermouth with your vodka it's called a kangaroo.
  • If the collider were in a nation known for kangaroo courts, you better believe the court would have taken the case.
  • Elsewhere they have gone to court for the blunt-nosed leopard lizard and the giant kangaroo rat.
  • As the number of seed-producing plants has declined, so has the kangaroo rat's population, but the species survives.
  • As the creature grows up into a kangaroo, the rancher trains it to box.
British Dictionary definitions for kangaroo

kangaroo

/ˌkæŋɡəˈruː/
noun (pl) -roos
1.
any large herbivorous marsupial of the genus Macropus and related genera, of Australia and New Guinea, having large powerful hind legs, used for leaping, and a long thick tail: family Macropodidae See also rat kangaroo, tree kangaroo
2.
(usually pl) (stock exchange) an Australian share, esp in mining, land, or a tobacco company
verb -roos, -rooing, -rooed
3.
(informal) (of a car) to move forward or to cause (a car) to move forward with short sudden jerks, as a result of improper use of the clutch
Derived Forms
kangaroo-like, adjective
Word Origin
C18: probably from a native Australian language
Word Origin and History for kangaroo
n.

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.

Slang definitions & phrases for kangaroo

kangaroo

verb

To convict someone with false evidence; frame (Prison)