Prehensile

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pre=hen=sile

CIDE DICTIONARY

Prehensile, 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. préhensile. See Get, and cf. Prison, Prize, n.].

 Adapted to seize or grasp; seizing; grasping; as, the prehensile tail of a monkey.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Prehensile, adj. Zool. (of a tail or limb) capable of grasping.

Derivative

prehensility n.

Etymology

F pr{eacute}hensile f. L prehendere prehens- (as PRE-, hendere grasp)

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

Prehensile

Taking

N taking, reception, deglutition, appropriation, prehension, prensation, capture, caption, apprehension, deprehension, abreption, seizure, expropriation, abduction, ablation, subtraction, withdrawal, abstraction, ademption, adrolepsy, dispossession, deprivation, deprivement, bereavement, divestment, disherison, distraint, distress, sequestration, confiscation, eviction, rapacity, rapaciousness, extortion, vampirism, theft, resumption, reprise, reprisal, recovery, clutch, swoop, wrench, grip, haul, take, catch, scramble, taker, captor, subduction, taking, privative, prehensile, predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial, lupine, rapacious, raptorial, ravenous, parasitic, bereft, at one fell swoop, give an inch and take an ell.