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kangaroo
The definition of a kangaroo is a hopping animal with a long tail from Australia famous for carrying around its young in a pouch on the mother's body.
(noun)An example of a kangaroo is the animal at the zoo that hops around on its hind legs.
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See kangaroo in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun pl. kangaroos or kangaroo
any of various leaping, plant-eating marsupials (family Macropodidae) native to Australia and neighboring islands, with short forelegs, strong, large hind legs, and a long, thick tail: the female has a pouch, or marsupium, in front, for her young
Origin: said (by James Cook) to be native Australian name in Queensland
See kangaroo in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun pl. kangaroo kangaroo or kan·ga·roos
Any of various herbivorous marsupials of the family Macropodidae of Australia and adjacent islands, having short forelimbs, large hind limbs adapted for leaping, and a long tapered tail.
Origin:
Origin: Guugu Yimidhirr (Aboriginal language of northeast Australia) gaᶇurru
. Word History: A widely held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “I don't know.” This is in fact untrue. The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia. In 1820, one Captain Phillip K. King recorded a different word for the animal, written “mee-nuah.” As a result, it was assumed that Captain Cook had been mistaken, and the myth grew up that what he had heard was a word meaning “I don't know” (presumably as the answer to a question in English that had not been understood). Recent linguistic fieldwork, however, has confirmed the existence of a word gangurru in the northeast Aboriginal language of Guugu Yimidhirr, referring to a species of kangaroo. What Captain King heard may have been their word minha, meaning “edible animal.”Learn more about kangaroo
