From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishldoce_283_ereptilerep‧tile /ˈreptaɪl $ ˈreptl/ noun [countable] 1 HBAa type of animal, such as a snake or lizard, whose body temperature changes according to the temperature around it, and that usually lays eggs to have babies2 informalBAD PERSON someone who is unpleasant or cannot be trusted —reptilian /repˈtɪliən/ adjective
Examples from the Corpus
reptile• Both amphibians and reptiles are paralyzed by cold, and are therefore confined to the temperate zones and tropics.• Under the microscope even the bone structure of these dinosaurs looks more like that of living mammals than cold-blooded reptiles.• Similarly, the huge reptiles which dominated the land, sea, and even the air of the Cretaceous are all gone.• Hunting reptiles is nothing new to John Weber.• In turn the later reptiles could diversify on land when they could lay eggs away from a watery environment.• The third is an immune system, used only by the descendants of reptiles.• Eventually, they were eclipsed by the reptiles and much reduced in numbers.Origin reptile (1300-1400) Old French Late Latin reptilis “creeping”, from Latin repere “to creep” 