lemming
part of speech
noun (a lemming, lemmings)
meaning for a pupil
1) A lemming is a small, furry, short-tailed rodent that lives in cold northern lands such as the Arctic tundra. tree →
2) (figurative) A person who blindly follows the crowd, even into danger, is sometimes called a lemming. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons lemmings come up in Arctic food chains: snowy owls, Arctic foxes and stoats eat them, and lemming numbers rise and fall in big cycles every few years. In everyday talk «like lemmings» means people following each other without thinking. Myth lesson: lemmings do not throw themselves off cliffs on purpose; a nature film long ago faked that scene.
examples
- The lemming dug a tunnel under the snow. tree →
- Snowy owls hunt lemmings on the tundra. tree →
- Some years there are huge numbers of lemmings, and other years very few. tree →
- Lemmings are related to voles and hamsters. tree →
- Everyone rushed to the door like lemmings when the bell rang. tree →
- Don't be a lemming — think for yourself. tree →
- The Arctic fox pounced on a lemming hiding in the grass. tree →
note
Plural «lemmings». Myth: lemmings do not commit mass suicide; that idea came from a staged film scene. Calling someone a lemming is a mild insult meaning they follow others without thinking. Spelling: double «m».
In the corpora
- The cliff-jumping lemming myth was spread by a 1958 Disney film in which the film makers pushed lemmings over a cliff.
- Lemmings do not jump off cliffs on purpose; the famous 1958 film scene was staged by bringing lemmings in and pushing them off.
- Norwegian lemmings are bold and brightly coloured, and they often squeak and stand their ground against much bigger animals.
- An Arctic fox mother can have over ten cubs in a good lemming year.
- The 1991 computer game «Lemmings» made the myth more famous, though the player's job was to save them.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «lemming» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.