Definition of "gecko" []

• Any of various usually small tropical and subtropical lizards of the family Gekkonidae, having toes padded with setae containing numerous suction cups that enable them to climb on vertical surfaces. (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.

• "The whole gecko is evolved to move in exactly the right way to use these forces to run up walls at high speed."
• "KANSAS: Lawrence -- experts confirmed the Mediterranean gecko is taking up residence in the state after spreading from the Southeast."
• "In this earlier dream that he was now recalling a gecko crawled on a wooden cross that marked a mound near the trash barrel where a family cat had been buried in a shoe box coffin long ago."