rept

‖n. pl. [ NL. ] (Zool.) A division of gastropods; the Pectinibranchiata. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. reptatio, from reptare: cf. F. reptation. ] (Zool.) The act of creeping. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) Creeping. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. reptile, L. reptilis, fr. repere, reptum, to creep; cf. Lith. reploti; perh. akin to L. serpere. Cf. Serpent. ] 1. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence: Groveling; low; vulgar; as, a reptile race or crew; reptile vices. [ 1913 Webster ]

There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

And dislodge their reptile souls
From the bodies and forms of men. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Zool.) An animal that crawls, or moves on its belly, as snakes, or by means of small, short legs, as lizards, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarned,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) One of the Reptilia, or one of the Amphibia. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The amphibians were formerly classed with Reptilia, and are still popularly called reptiles, though much more closely allied to the fishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A groveling or very mean person. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. ] (Zool.) A class of air-breathing oviparous vertebrates, usually covered with scales or bony plates. The heart generally has two auricles and one ventricle. The development of the young is the same as that of birds. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It is nearly related in many respects to Aves, or birds. The principal existing orders are Testidunata or Chelonia (turtles), Crocodilia, Lacertilla (lizards), Ophidia (serpents), and Rhynchocephala; the chief extinct orders are Dinosauria, Theremorpha, Mosasauria, Pterosauria, Plesiosauria, Ichtyosauria. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Belonging to the reptiles. [ 1913 Webster ]

Reptilian age (Geol.), that part of geological time comprising the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, and distinguished as that era in which the class of reptiles attained its highest expansion; -- called also the Secondary or Mezozoic age. [ 1913 Webster ]