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lemming - definition and meaning
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various small, thickset rodents of the subfamily Arvicolinae, especially of the genus Lemmus, inhabiting northern regions and known for periodic mass migrations.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rodent quadruped of the family Muridæ, subfamily Arvicolinæ, and one of the genera Myodes, Cuniculus, and Synaptomys (see these terms).
- noun The North American lemmings, 8 or 10 species of which are now recognized, have been divided into two genera, Lemmus and Dicrostonyx, and the species once familiar as Myodes obensis is now Lemmus alascensis. The black-footed lemming, L. nigripes, is peculiar to St George Island, Bering Sea. The common northeastern species is D. hudsonius.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of small arctic rodents of the genera Myodes and Cuniculus, resembling the meadow mice in form. They are found in both hemispheres.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small
Arctic andSubarctic rodent from any of six genera of similar rodents. - noun figuratively Any member of a group given to
conformity orgroupthink , especially a group poised tofollow a leader off a cliff .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of various short-tailed furry-footed rodents of circumpolar distribution
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Norwegian, from Old Norse læmingi, læmingr.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Norwegian, from Old Norse lomundr ("lemming"), perhaps from Sami luomek
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lemming.
Examples
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The hypocrit clearly laudes his/her lemming-like following of the Republican party and in lemming-like fashion claims to be a proud member of the party of no. wow!
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I'm not calling the lemming behavior a mental disorder.
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A lemming is a lemming, and this cliff I see coming is the mother of all falls.
Superdelegates WILL Decide: Will They Allow Clinton To Take the Scorched Earth Path? 2008
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She has a tremendous following, the so-called lemming vote.
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You're going to be up against what we used to call the lemming factor.
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On Spitzbergen the snowy owl is very rare; but on Novaya Zemlya and the North coast of Asia -- where the lemming, which is wanting on Spitzbergen, occurs in great crowds -- it is common.
The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II Alexander Leslie 1866
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Actually a lemming is a form of rat, so it makes sense that they do this.
Latest Articles 2009
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(it just goes to show …. a lemming is a lemming is a lemming and they just dont change …. but only keep on blindly following the others!)
Big Tech 2009
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(it just goes to show …. a lemming is a lemming is a lemming and they just dont change …. but only keep on blindly following the others!)
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(it just goes to show …. a lemming is a lemming is a lemming and they just dont change …. but only keep on blindly following the others!)
Big Tech 2009
vanishedone commented on the word lemming
Coined as a philosophical term of art by Brian Weatherson: 'The best suggestions seemed to be that I have a purely disjunctive label. But “Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind�? seemed to be too long. What we needed was a shortening. Maybe an acronym. But LEMM seemed boring. If we just add a suffix we could have a name. I know… LEMMINGS!'
June 12, 2009