turtlet

turtle +‎ -let (“diminutive suffix”)

turtlet (plural turtlets)

1. (informal) A small or baby turtle.

   The turtlet scurried across the sandy beach, its tiny legs moving quickly as it searched for a safe place to hide.

   • 1831, Edward John Trelawny, Adventures of a Younger Son, volume 3, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, page 31:

     Only recollect when, off Ceylon, I picked up that pretty little turtlet, which you all contended was a log of wood,—but I knew he was a turtle.

   • 1899, Arthur Willey, Zoological Results Based on Material from New Britain, New Guinea, Loyalty Islands and Elsewhere, Collected During the Years 1895, 1896 and 1897, volume 3, University Press, page 221:

     Of course comparatively very few individuals of a brood of several dozen Turtlets reach maturity, but they meet with their death through Sea-birds, Crocodiles, Sharks, and similar enemies, which in all probability swallow them regardless of the number of disposition of their victims' scutes.

   • 1960, Clifford Hillhouse Pope, The Reptile World, Knopf, page 108:

     Imagine a dark mite of a turtlet struggling to the surface in the middle of a huge expanse of white sand over and on which numerous enemies are lurking. It behooves the mite to get to the sea as soon as possible, but how can it know which way to go?

   • 1973, H. Robert Bustard, Kay's Turtles, Collins, →ISBN, page 107:

     She craned forward to watch exactly what happened and saw that the turtlet in the centre of the three was moving its head slowly from side to side.

   • 2018 June 8, Kathryn Wortley, “Watch your step, the turtles are hatching on Yakushima”, in Japan Times‎:

     Soon, about 30 young turtlets are circling the illuminated hatching point; the light from our guide's lamp acts as a fence, keeping them grouped together.

   • 2020 February 20, Kai Powell, “Maneater Hands-On Preview – Sun's Out, Fins Out”, in Wccftech‎:

     Bull sharks have the strongest bite of any measured shark and can eat turtlets as well as other bull sharks and probably have no problem ripping open a canoe like a can of salted mackerel.

• “turtlet”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “turtlet”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.