See turtle head in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "By analogy with the manner whereby a turtle's or tortoise's head gradually emerges from the shell, after having been kept inside for some time for defensive or resting purposes. When threatened (such as by contact), the head rapidly retreats into the shell, which might have further reinforced the vulgar analogy.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "turtle heads",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle heading",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle headed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle headed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle-head",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "+"
},
"expansion": "turtle head (third-person singular simple present turtle heads, present participle turtle heading, simple past and past participle turtle headed)",
"name": "en-verb"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "idiomatic",
"3": "_",
"4": "slang",
"5": "intransitive"
},
"expansion": "(idiomatic slang, intransitive)",
"name": "tlb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "49 51",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "52 48",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To emerge partially from the body, as a result of heightened internal pressure in the bowels."
],
"id": "en-turtle_head-en-verb-UsgrbJg-",
"links": [
[
"emerge",
"emerge"
],
[
"partially",
"partially"
],
[
"heightened",
"heighten"
],
[
"internal",
"internal"
],
[
"pressure",
"pressure"
],
[
"bowel",
"bowel"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(vulgar, of feces) To emerge partially from the body, as a result of heightened internal pressure in the bowels."
],
"raw_tags": [
"of feces"
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"intransitive",
"slang",
"vulgar"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English euphemisms",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English links with manual fragments",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "49 51",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "15 85",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English links with manual fragments",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "52 48",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To struggle to keep an imminent bowel movement wholly inside oneself."
],
"id": "en-turtle_head-en-verb-Irz5vai5",
"links": [
[
"struggle",
"struggle#Verb"
],
[
"imminent",
"imminent"
],
[
"bowel movement",
"bowel movement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(euphemistic or vulgar, of a person) To struggle to keep an imminent bowel movement wholly inside oneself."
],
"raw_tags": [
"of a person"
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"idiomatic",
"intransitive",
"slang",
"vulgar"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "crown"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "grow a tail"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "prairie dog"
}
],
"word": "turtle head"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English intransitive verbs",
"English lemmas",
"English links with manual fragments",
"English multiword terms",
"English slang",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_text": "By analogy with the manner whereby a turtle's or tortoise's head gradually emerges from the shell, after having been kept inside for some time for defensive or resting purposes. When threatened (such as by contact), the head rapidly retreats into the shell, which might have further reinforced the vulgar analogy.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "turtle heads",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle heading",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle headed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle headed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "turtle-head",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "+"
},
"expansion": "turtle head (third-person singular simple present turtle heads, present participle turtle heading, simple past and past participle turtle headed)",
"name": "en-verb"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "idiomatic",
"3": "_",
"4": "slang",
"5": "intransitive"
},
"expansion": "(idiomatic slang, intransitive)",
"name": "tlb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English vulgarities"
],
"glosses": [
"To emerge partially from the body, as a result of heightened internal pressure in the bowels."
],
"links": [
[
"emerge",
"emerge"
],
[
"partially",
"partially"
],
[
"heightened",
"heighten"
],
[
"internal",
"internal"
],
[
"pressure",
"pressure"
],
[
"bowel",
"bowel"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(vulgar, of feces) To emerge partially from the body, as a result of heightened internal pressure in the bowels."
],
"raw_tags": [
"of feces"
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"intransitive",
"slang",
"vulgar"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English euphemisms",
"English links with manual fragments",
"English vulgarities"
],
"glosses": [
"To struggle to keep an imminent bowel movement wholly inside oneself."
],
"links": [
[
"struggle",
"struggle#Verb"
],
[
"imminent",
"imminent"
],
[
"bowel movement",
"bowel movement"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(euphemistic or vulgar, of a person) To struggle to keep an imminent bowel movement wholly inside oneself."
],
"raw_tags": [
"of a person"
],
"tags": [
"euphemistic",
"idiomatic",
"intransitive",
"slang",
"vulgar"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "crown"
},
{
"word": "grow a tail"
},
{
"word": "prairie dog"
}
],
"word": "turtle head"
}
Download raw JSONL data for turtle head meaning in English (2.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-07-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (e62056b and e7887d5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.