Definition of "ass" []

• Any of several hoofed mammals of the genus Equus, resembling and closely related to the horses but having a smaller build and longer ears, and including the domesticated donkey. (noun)
• A vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person. (noun)
• The buttocks. (noun)
• The anus. (noun)
• Vulgar Slang Sexual intercourse. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "[38] The story goes that a traveller who had hired an ass, having placed himself in its shadow to escape the heat of the sun, was sued by the driver, who had pretended that he had let the ass, not but its shadow; hence the Greek proverb, _to quarrel about the shade of an ass_, i.e. about nothing at all."
• "But in the first place, it is to be observed, that there seems to have been a blunder in this transaction; for according to the Hebrew idiom of the passage quoted above, the personage there spoken of, was to ride upon “an ass’ colt; ” whereas, the apostles, in order to be sure of fulfilling the prophecy, represent Jesus as riding upon an ass, and the colt, too!"
• "Mr. Orton says -- "The mule, the produce of the male ass and mare, is essentially a _modified ass_: the ears are those of an ass somewhat shortened; the mane is that of the ass, erect; the tail is that of an ass; the skin and color are those of an ass somewhat modified; the legs are slender and the hoofs high, narrow and contracted, like those of an ass."