LEMMING


Meaning of LEMMING in English

/ ˈlemɪŋ; NAmE / noun

a small animal like a mouse, that lives in cold northern countries. Sometimes large groups of lemmings migrate (= move from one place to another) in search of food. Many of them die on these journeys and there is a popular belief that lemmings kill themselves by jumping off cliffs :

Lemming-like we rushed into certain disaster.

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WORD ORIGIN

early 18th cent.: from Norwegian and Danish ; related to Old Norse lómundr .

Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Оксфордский английский словарь для изучающик язык на продвинутом уровне.