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# tusk

«tusk» in Mova's school dictionary: **a very long, pointed tooth that grows out of the mouth of…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a tusk, tusks)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A tusk is a very long, pointed tooth that grows out of the mouth of some animals, such as elephants, walruses, wild boars and narwhals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#m1)

2) Tusks are used for digging, fighting, lifting and getting food, and they keep growing through the animal's life. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons tusks come up in adaptations: elephants use tusks to dig for water and strip bark, walruses use them to pull themselves onto the ice. In conservation lessons pupils learn that tusks are made of ivory and that poachers kill elephants for it, so selling ivory is banned or limited in many countries. In stories about mammoths and wild boars, tusks show the animal is strong and dangerous.

### examples

- The elephant lifted the log with its tusks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x1)
- Walruses use their tusks to haul themselves onto the ice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x2)
- A narwhal's tusk is really one long spiral tooth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x3)
- Woolly mammoths had huge curved tusks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x4)
- Elephant tusks are made of ivory. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x5)
- The wild boar's tusks were sharp and curved. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x6)
- Poachers hunt elephants for their tusks, which is against the law. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x7)
- Some elephants are born without tusks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x8)
- Lay your beast alongside, Toomai, and let him prod with his tusks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/#x9)

### note

Plural «tusks». A tusk is a tooth, not a horn; horns grow on the head, tusks come out of the mouth. «Tusked» means having tusks. Do not confuse with «task» (a job).

### In the corpora

- [Elephants use their tusks to dig for water and salt, strip bark, move things and defend themselves.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/22-elephants-families-tusks-ears-memory/10/)
- [In the Middle Ages narwhal tusks were sold in Europe as unicorn horns and were worth more than their weight in gold.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/45-sloth-narwhal-chameleon-eel-giraffe/8/)
- [Warthogs often use old aardvark burrows and back in tail-first, so their tusks face the opening.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/125-timon-and-pumbaa-real-meerkats-and-warthogs/13/)
- [Mammoth tusks have rings inside like tree rings, which scientists read to learn how the animal lived year by year.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/130-ice-age-real-woolly-mammoths/8/)
- [About 15,000 years ago, at Mezhyrich in Ukraine, people built round huts from mammoth jaws, skulls, tusks and long bones.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «tusk» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tusk/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.