invertebrate

in- +‎ vertebrate

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvəːtɪbrət/

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invertebrate (plural invertebrates)

1. An animal without vertebrae, i.e. backbone.
   • 2024 March 20, Chris Howe, “High speed underneath the Chilterns...”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 33:

     Yet despite sounding inhospitable, grasslands such as this are home to a huge variety of smaller herbs and wildflowers, including some of the UK's rarest orchids and invertebrates, in addition to being home to butterfly species such as the Chalkhill Blue.

2. (informal) A spineless person; a coward.

• vertebrate

invertebrate (not comparable)

1. Lacking a backbone; without vertebrae.
   • 1860, Recreative Science, page 110:

     Tear it up, and put a fragment under the microscope, and, wonder of wonders! see the maze of geometric forms exhibited in the bones of the creature; for who can help regarding the spicules as bones, even though a sponge be invertebrate?

2. Cowardly, uncourageous; lacking character.

   Synonym: spineless

   • 2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian‎:

     This week Fifa’s morally invertebrate president, Gianni Infantino, gave a speech that attempted to paint his World Cup as a marker of a grand struggle between the bright new world and corrupt old Europe, with Infantino himself the Mandela at its centre.

• vertebrate, vertebrated

• inveterate (not to be confused)

invertebrate

1. feminine plural of invertebrato