Reptile — Defs

01 a. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.

1.
Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.
2.
Hence: Groveling; low; vulgar; as, a reptile race or crew; reptile vices.
“There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear.” — Burke.

“And dislodge their reptile souls From the bodies and forms of men.” — Coleridge.

02 n. An animal that crawls, or moves on its belly, as snakes,, or by means of small, short legs, as lizards, and the like.

1.
An animal that crawls, or moves on its belly, as snakes,, or by means of small, short legs, as lizards, and the like.(Zool.)
“An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.” — Cowper.
2.
One of the Reptilia, or one of the Amphibia.(Zool.)
3.
A groveling or very mean person.