tardigrade, a. (n.)
(ˈtɑːdɪgreɪd)
[a. F. tardigrade (a 1615 in Godef. Compl.), or ad. L. tardigrad-us walking slowly, f. L. tardus slow + -gradus stepping, going.]
1. Walking or going slowly; slow-paced.
| 1623 Cockeram, Tardigrade, a slow goer. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Tardigrade, that goeth slow or hath a slow pace. 1852 Mundy Our Antipodes (1857) 185 The Deborah proved a marine hackney-coach of the most tardigrade order. 1875 W. Houghton Sk. Brit. Insects 145 The Meloë..a bloated, tardigrade, wingless beetle upon the meadow. |
b. fig. Sluggish in thought or action, unprogressive, ‘slow-going’.
| 1883 Pall Mall G. 28 Dec. 4/2 Even in our tardigrade West Country the farmer has begun to discover,..that he, too, is an economical power. |
2. Zool. a. Belonging to the sub-order (Tardigrada) or family (Bradypodidæ) of edentate mammals, comprising the sloths.
| 1799 Carlisle in Phil. Trans. XC. 101 The habits of life among the tardigrade animals, give occasion for the long continued contraction of some muscles in their limbs. 1892 W. H. Hudson Natur. La Plata xxii. 350 Tardigrade mammals of arboreal habits. |
b. Belonging to the group Tardigrada of Arachnids, comprising the minute aquatic animals called water-bears or bear-animalcules.
| 1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 415/1 Doyere states that he has found zoospores in the tardigrade Infusoria. 1891 Cent. Dict. s.v., Tardigrade rotifers [obs.], the Tardigrada Arctisca; bear-animalcules. |
B. n. a. An edentate mammal of the sub-order Tardigrada; a sloth.
| 1827 Griffith tr. Cuvier's Anim. K. III. 251 The tardigrades will form the first class [of the Edentata]... Their name is derived from their excessive slowness. 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. II. xvii. 208 The last family..in the present Order [Edentates] is very well distinguished by the name of Tardigrades. |
b. An arachnid of the group Tardigrada; a water-bear.
| 1860 All Year Round No. 43. 387 The tardigrades dwell in the same localities as the rotifers. 1872 Darwin in Life & Lett. III. 169 On this view, a Rotifer or Tardigrade is adapted to its humble conditions of life by a happy accident; and this I cannot believe. |