camel
part of speech
noun (camel, camels)
meaning for a pupil
1) A camel is a large animal with a long neck and one or two humps on its back, which lives in deserts. tree →
2) Camel is a light brown colour. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons camels show adaptation to the desert: humps store fat (not water), wide feet do not sink in sand, long eyelashes and closing nostrils keep sand out, and they can go days without drinking. In geography camels carry people and goods across deserts; wild camels live in Australia. Phrases: camel ride, camel train, the straw that broke the camel's back.
examples
- A camel can walk for days in the desert. tree →
- The camel has two humps. tree →
- We rode a camel on holiday. tree →
- A camel's hump stores fat. tree →
- Camels have long eyelashes to keep out sand. tree →
- Thousands of wild camels live in Australia. tree →
- She wore a camel coat. tree →
- “The proper way,” said the camel. “We all sat down--” tree →
note
Countable noun. One hump = dromedary (Arabian camel); two humps = Bactrian camel (easy trick: D has one bump, B has two). Myth: the hump is full of water — it is fat, which the body can turn into energy. Spelling: camel, not «camle».
In the corpora
- A camel's hump stores fat, not water; when food is short the camel uses the fat and the hump goes floppy.
- A thirsty camel can drink over 100 litres of water in about ten minutes, and its body loses very little water.
- Each time the Camel said "Humph!" and the animal "went away and told the Man".
- The Camel came by "chewing milkweed most 'scruciating idle" and laughed at them.
- Real biology: camels really do eat thorny desert plants; their tough lips and mouths are not hurt by the thorns.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «camel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.