Word.ws English Dictionary

turtling up

turtling up is the present participle and gerund of turtle up.

Meaning of turtle up

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be defensive or hypervigilant; to adopt a defensive posture; to avoid conflict

Questions about turtling up

What is turtling up the present participle and gerund of?
Turtling up is the present participle and gerund of turtle up.

Words near turtling up in the dictionary

  1. turtlette
  2. turtlettes
  3. turtleweed
  4. turtling
  5. turtling down
  6. turtling up
  7. turtlings
  8. turtly
  9. Turtmann
  10. turtmannite
  11. Turton

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turtling up (page history and authors); turtle up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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