Prehensile

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prehensile \Pre*hen"sile\, a. [L. prehensus, p. p. of prehendere
     to lay hold of, seize; pre- (equiv. to prae before) + hendere
     (in comp.), akin to E. get: cf. F. pr['e]hensile. See {Get},
     and cf. {Prison}, {Prize}, n.]
     Adapted to seize or grasp; seizing; grasping; as, the
     prehensile tail of a monkey.


     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prehensile
       adj 1: adapted for grasping especially by wrapping around an
              object; "a monkey's prehensile tail" [ant: {nonprehensile}]
       2: having a keen intellect; "poets--those gifted strangely
          prehensile men"- A.T.Quiller-Couch
       3: immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth; "they are
          avaricious and will do anything for money"; "casting
          covetous eyes on his neighbor's fields"; "a grasping old
          miser"; "grasping commercialism"; "greedy for money and
          power"; "grew richer and greedier"; "prehensile employers
          stingy with raises for their employees" [syn: {avaricious},
           {covetous}, {grabby}, {grasping}, {greedy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "prehensile":
     acquisitive, all-knowing, apperceptive, appercipient, apprehending,
     apprehensive, aware, clawed, cognizant, comprehending, conscious,
     dentate, desirous, digital, digitate, digitated, fanged, fingered,
     grabby, grasping, greedy, insightful, intelligent, itchy, jawed,
     knowing, knowledgeable, mindful, omniscient, perceptive,
     percipient, perspicacious, raptorial, sagacious, sensible, shrewd,
     taloned, toothed, understanding, wise