Dictionary

pachydermic en · ADJ

Etymology

From pachy- + derm + -ic or pachyderm + -ic.

Meanings

1. Characterized by or characteristic of pachydermy.
   • Pachydermic changes may take place either in the interarytenoid commissure or in the mucous membrane covering the true vocal cords, or it may exist in a generally diffuse form within the larynx. 1895, The International Medical Annual and Practitioner's Index:
   • In pachydermic idiocy the symptoms are more decided and the appearance more distinctive. In the cretin the hands are of a more normal shape, whereas in the pachydermic idiot the fingers are lumpy and the hands swollen. 1898, William Wotherspoon Ireland, The Mental Affections of Children, page 242:
   • In some cases, these changes can spread beyond the injury site to the entire limb, and in the worst case, in addition to excruciating pain and hyperesthesia, the skin becomes pachydermic. 2014, Walter R. Frontera, Julie K. Silver, Thomas D. Rizzo, Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, page 495:
2. Pertaining to the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata.
   • ... "great beasts that resembled huge brown haystacks" and had long, long teeth — tusks, no doubt — so it seems incontrovertible that mastodons and woolly mammoths are meant. Such pachydermic animals did roam Maine once upon a time. 1990, Neil Rolde, Maine: A Narrative History, page 9:
   • The position of the Walrus is between Sirenidia and Pachydermata ; they belong to the pachydermic order by structural evidences, and bear only analogies to the seals. 1862, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Summarized Proceedings and a Directory of Members:
   • This is rather like dividing the zoological universe into pachydermic and non-pachydermic animals. 2015, Daniel S. Putler, Robert E. Krider, Customer and Business Analytics:
3. Pertaining to or involving elephants.
   • With a powerful foot it drives the culverin into the ground and continues hot-trunk on its way in the pachydermic hope of reducing to mincemeat the vermin it perceives, but the dogs are already in their kennels, the horses in the stables and the arttillarymen hard by the drawbridge. 1985, Raymond Queneau, The Blue Flowers:
   • When the A's many years later put out a newsletter, they called it “Along the Elephant Trail,” with appropriate pachydermic iconography. 2014, David M. Jordan, The A's: A Baseball History, page 12:
   • "This," says the press agent, "was a test, of pachydermic memory which corroboratcs all that tradition and history assumes." 1906, Great Round World - Volume 27, page 237:
4. Massive; elephantine.
   • In any case, in a context characterised by an already overstretched study and teaching environment why deal with a subject as vague as communication – with its multi-faceted meanings that range from the infinitismal to the pachydermic and that is a challenge to most people let alone the proverbially blind. 2007, Helmuth Rolfes, Angela Ann Zukowski, Communicatio Socialis:
   • The raw and naked thought of Stirner is a barbaric act of rare ferocity, excessive, the classical elephant that with its pachydermic mass makes space for itself in the philosophical china shop,” writes Alfredo Bonnano. 2011, Jimmy Casas Klausen, James R. Martel, How Not to be Governed:
   • Maybe that's why a state legislative committee, asked to recommend changes to Illinois' politically sleazy purchasing system. has called for a new bureaucracy of pachydermic proportions. 1994, Press Summary - Illinois Information Service, page 2:
5. Ponderous; slow and deliberate.
   • Have you ever noticed that you can practically see men thinking at a business conference, pachydermic with seriousness? 1936, Daniel W. Josselyn, Why be Tired?, page 33:
   • The Court, it its interpretative role, can neither be pachydermic nor hyperactive when landlords, here and there lament about lost land. 2005, T. Lajapathi Roy, Atrocities Against Dalits and Relevance of Land Reforms, page 42:
   • Otherwise a profligate statutory body or pachydermic governmental agency may legally defy duties under the law by urging in self-defence a self-created bankruptcy or perverted expenditure budget. 1991, Armin Rosencranz, Shyam Divan, Martha L. Noble, Environmental law and policy in India, page 99:
6. Thick-skinned; insensitive.
   • On the contrary, we are studiously pachydermic and nobody ever accused us of being sensitive to public opinion, but really this thing is commencing to afiect even our nerves. 1913, Life - Volume 61, page 156:
   • I remarked, “You needn't look at me that way, Mary. It makes no impression. I am pachydermic after all these years of teaching.” 1924, Lillian Beatrice Lawler, Latin Notes - Volumes 1-13:
   • Such pachydermic obtuseness surely could be found in isolated instances only, and happy chance had thrown that isolated instance his way. 1920, Lida Clara Schem, The Hyphen - Volume 1, page 390:

Forms