tusk

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌsk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ʌsk

From Middle English tusk (also tux, tusch), from Old English tūx, tūsċ (“canine tooth, tusk, molar”), from Proto-West Germanic *tų̄sk, *tunsk, from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz (“canine tooth”), extended form of *tanþs (“tooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tusk (“tooth”), West Frisian tosk (“tooth”), Icelandic toskur (“a tusk, tooth”) (whence the Old Norse and Icelandic Ratatoskr and Ratatoskur respectively), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus, “tooth”) and *𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌹 (*tundi, “thorn, tooth”). Doublet of tush. More at tooth.

tusk (plural tusks)

1. One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life.

   Until the CITES sales ban, elephant tusks were the 'backbone' of the legal ivory trade.

2. A small projection on a (tusk) tenon.
3. A tusk shell.
4. (carpentry) A projecting member like a tenon, and serving the same or a similar purpose, but composed of several steps, or offsets, called teeth.
5. A sharp point.
6. The share of a plough.

tusk (third-person singular simple present tusks, present participle tusking, simple past and past participle tusked)

1. To dig up using a tusk, as boars do.
2. To gore with the tusks.
3. (obsolete) To bare or gnash the teeth.

• tusked
• tusker
• tusklike
• tusky
• tusk tenon

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “tusk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tusk (plural tusks)

1. A fish, the torsk (Brosme brosme).

tusk m

1. dog

• Tusk

Related to Finnish tuska. Ultimately from Russian тоска́ (toská, “melancholy”).

tusk

1. pain

• tux, tuxe, tosk, tuske, twuxe

From Old English tūx, from earlier tūsc, from Proto-Germanic *tunþskaz. Compare tusshe.

• IPA^(key): /tusk/, /tuks/

tusk (plural tuskes)

1. A tusk (protruding long tooth)
2. Any long and sharp tooth.
3. (rare) The end of a spear.

• tusky
• tuskyd

• English: tusk
• Scots: tusk

• “tusk, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-22.

• tosk

Cognate with Old English tūsc.

tusk m

1. tooth

• West Frisian: tosk

Related to Finnish tuska. Ultimately from Russian тоска́ (toská, “melancholy”).

tusk

1. boredom