Hamster Meaning
/ˈhæm(p)stə/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae.
nounAny of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae., In particular, a rodent of the species Mesocricetus auratus (the golden hamster) or of a species of the genera Cricetiscus and Phodopus (the dwarf hamsters), often kept as a pet or used in scientific research.
Sentence Examples
This hamster is small enough to carry in your pocket.
My hamster has a swollen testicle on one side.
CEFR Practice Quiz
My little sister keeps a small ____ in a cage with a wheel.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
My little brother received a cute ____ as a birthday present and spent hours playing with it.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from German Hamster (see for etymology). Displaced earlier term German rat.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Since the pregnancy interceptive agents or the menses regulators may also influence the development of either trophoblasts or the maternal cells (epithelial and stromal) at the embryo attachment site, another in vitro assay method using using trophoblast cells of hamster and mouse isolated from a preplacental organelle, the ectoplacental cone, has been developed."
— 2013, George deStevens, Ernst Jucker, V. Zingel, Progress in Drug Research, page 166:
"Probably the city government knew that without that hamstering half the city would starve and they somehow got the police to lay off. It was in the little stinky one-horse towns that you had all the trouble."
— 1974, Phyllis Knight, Rolf Knight, A Very Ordinary Life, page 43:
"[…] in his bedroom in neat stacks — he always hamstered them away upstairs as soon as the morning was done. This year the gifts sat ignored […]"
— 2004, Sharon L. Pywell, What Happened to Henry, page 50:
"[…] eastern children frequently “hamstered,” smuggled, and begged across the boundary, especially after currency reform […]"
— 2014, Edith Sheffer, Burned Bridge: How East and West Germans Made the Iron Curtain:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
My little sister keeps a small ____ in a cage with a wheel.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
My little brother received a cute ____ as a birthday present and spent hours playing with it.