turtled

Verb

turtle (third-person singular simple present turtles, present participle turtling, simple past and past participle turtled)

1. (intransitive) To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.
   • Were speeding when car turtled […] Auto crashed into curb and turtled.1919, Iowa Highway Commission, Service Bulletin, Issues 15-32, page 48
   1. (intransitive) To turn and swim upside down.
      • I turtled my board beneath it, flipped upright, and started paddling again.2009, Amy Waeschle, Chasing Waves: A Surfer's Tale of Obsessive Wandering, page 149
   2. (intransitive) To capsize, turning fully over.
   3. (intransitive) To fall with one arm behind a rope, forcing the climber to dangle on their back, leaving them helpless.
2. (intransitive) To move along slowly.
   • We turtled along in Manitoba, back into the heart of the prairies.2012, Sophie B. Watson, Cadillac Couches, page 193
3. (intransitive) To hunt turtles, especially in the water.
   • Of these, 80 turtled (65%), 26 hunted and turtled (20%), and 18 hunted (15%).1973, Bernard Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: The Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, page 153

See all 28 meanings of turtle