to a zeroth approximation = T = toast

toad vt. [MUD]

1. Notionally, to change a MUD player into a toad. 2. To permanently and totally exile a player from the MUD. A very serious action, which can only be done by a MUD wizard; often involves a lot of debate among the other characters first. See also frog, FOD.

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

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Toads:

Amphibians are a wonderful species. Amphibian means "double life" which means they spend the first part of their life under water breathing through gills. Amphibians were the first vertebrate (animals with back bones) to leave water and come live on land. They're descendants from fish. The most common amphibians are frogs and toads. Some details about amphibians are: they breathe air through lungs and skin, they're cold blooded, they have scaleless skin, they lay their eggs in moist places and at birth do not look like their parents.

Frogs and toads are similar, but not exactly the same. Frogs have small thin bodies with long smooth legs, where as toads have small fat bodies and shorter thick legs. They use these legs to crawl around and only hop when they think they're in danger. They are also scattered with large bumps called warts. But you cannot get warts by touching a toad.

Most toads are about three inches long and spend most of their time on dry land. But the oak toad is one inch long, and the giant toad is almost ten inches!

The skin comes in many different colors, but their eyes are usually black. These large eyes are very good at seeing on land and in the water. They also have excellent hearing so they can hear your foot steps from very far away.

These toads are in danger. Farming and buildings destroy their homes and water and soil pollution make them sick. As toads die, the animals that eat them disappear too. And the insect rate is increased because the toads aren't around to eat them.

Food:

Toads are predators and eat mostly insects and worms. Toads eat a lot. One toad could eat 100 flies in only ten minutes! The toad only eats its prey when it's alive and moving. They can't really see the creature if it's not moving.

Most toads catch their food on the end of their long, sticky tongue. They have no teeth so they're forced to swallow their food whole. Farmers tend to like toads. They eat all those pesky insects that may be harmful to their crops.

Habitat and Hibernation:

Toads live almost everywhere except for the North and South poles: they enjoy warm, moist places. The Spade foot toad uses its feet to dig a burrow backwards in the soil. The toad stays in its burrow for a few weeks and only comes out if it's wet or rainy.

The toad hibernates until warmer weather comes because it's cold blooded and cannot generate its own body heat. Toads don't like the sun to much because it dries out their bodies. If their body loses too much water, they die. Because of this, most toads are nocturnal.

Tadpoles:

The louder a male sings the most likely he is to attract a mate. To make these sounds the toad puffs air into a huge vocal sac under his chin.

The females lay up to 30000 soft, clear eggs. Most toads put their eggs in long strings at the bottom of a lake, or string them around marsh plants. But the Midwife toad carries them on its back, that way they're safe from danger. Fish and other animals like to eat toad eggs. Some eggs hatch in one day, where as others take a few weeks.

When it hatches, the tadpole looks like a small fish. After a few weeks the tadpole begins to grow legs and breathe air like its parents. Later its back legs get longer and its tail shrinks.

Defenses:

Birds and snakes like to eat toads. Because of that most toads have to be equipped with some sort of defense. Most toads use camouflage to avoid getting caught, like the Cameroon Horned toad that lives in Africa. He has a leaf like patch of yellow skin on his back. But there are other ways that toads protect themselves besides blending in with their surroundings. Some puff themselves full of air so they look bigger, others show their brightly colored bellies so they look scarier! Some use poison. The American toad has poison on its back that tastes terrible, and predators will spit it out right away. In fact, many toads are poisonous, that's why you should always wash your hands after touching one.

Toad is a Nintendo character whose role is the "loyal mushroom retainer." He likes coffee tables, as one would see if s/he read the Super Mario Bros. comic book series.

For most of his video game career, Toad has always been more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, telling Mario to go save the Princess from Bowser, selling items (Super Mario RPG), and doing various other menial tasks that may seem small but play a large part in the long run.

Toad has only appeared as a playable character in three of Nintendo's video games: Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES, Super Mario Kart for the SNES, and Mario Tennis for the Virtual Boy. In SMB2 he was a little guy, not capable of anything too special. Toad was more glorified in Super Mario Kart along with the Koopa Troopa's one time playable experience. Being a moderately fast accelerator, having decent speed and good control, Toad was a common choice among video gamers. As for the sport of tennis, Toad remained well-balanced and popular.

A villain published by Marvel Comics. The Toad first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #4.

The man who would one day be known as the Toad was born Mortimer Toynbee. Because Toynbee's mutation was physical, he was mocked from an early age because of his appearance. Stooped with a greenish tinge to his skin, Toynbee was the butt of most jokes. He eventually ran away from the orphanage in which his parents had placed him. Years later, Toynbee would discover that he and thousands of mutants had been subjects of a group who were tracking human mutation called the Black Womb.

Toynbee's early upbringing and traumatic childhood made him extremely needy and starved for attention. For this reason, Toynbee became one of the allies of Magneto and particpated in Magneto's plans for world conquest. Toynbee became Magneto's "yes man," often times abused when plans didn't go right. This is also when Toynbee acquired the code name the Toad.

The Toad was a good name for Toynbee because his mutant abilities. Toynbee possesses incredible strength in his legs, allowing him to leap incredible distances. He also has a tongue that acts like a prehensile tail, allowing Toynbee to grasp with it. He also has the ability to exude a sticky substance from his hands that allows him to cling to walls.

The Toad was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in its first incarnation. The Toad followed Magneto believing that he would be rewarded for his help when Magneto eventually won. But, Magneto's constant abuse and neglect caused Toynbee to grow to hate his leader and eventually abandon him.

During his time with the Brotherhood, Toynbee became obsessed with Magneto's daughter, the Scarlet Witch. Toynbee began to stalk her and when he learned that the young mutant had married the artificial man known as the Vision, he became enraged. Employing an alien battlesuit, Toynbee attempted to destoy the Vision, but was opposed by the Vision, Magneto, and Quicksilver.

Toynbee reformed and sought to become the partner of Spider-Man. He and two other would be heroes, Frog-Man and Spider-Kid nearly drove Spider-Man crazy until the three decided to band together as a team called the Misfits. The group was short-lived.

Toynbee returned later as the leader of a new Brotherhood. Joined by former fellow Brotherhood member, The Blob, the Toad lead a new group of mutants, attempting to gain power for himself. He was opposed by the mutant team the X-Force and defeated.

Eventually, the Toad resurfaced. He was given shelter by Emma Frost, a member of the Hellfire Club. Frost allowed Toynbee to take up residence in one of her homes in Canada. Toynbee, however, worked with a mutant called the Surgeon to alter a group of toads to make them carniverous. These toads as well as the two mutants threatened Frost and her charges, the team called Generation X. They were defeated with the help of the X-Man, Banshee and Alpha Flight member Sasquatch.

Toynbee has recently been part of a group of mutants who opposed a menace from the far future. Toynbee returned a changed mutant, having been mortally wounded and healed by advanced technology in an alien craft. The alien ship caused Toynbee's appearance to change and to be more normal.

In the X-Men movie, the Toad gained a prominent part in the film. He was played by Ray Park, the actor who portrayed Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode One.

A toad is an amphibian of the order Anura, a classification which also includes the frog. I always thought the difference between toads and frogs revolved around the presence or absence of warts, but infoplease.com waffles a bit on this one. First it says that there's no clear cut distinction between the two. It says that colloquially, the name toad is used to refer to species with shorter legs, stouter bodies, and thick skins (no warts mentioned), while frogs are longer-legged and have more slender bodies. (Sounds like frogs are the supermodels of the Anura order.)

Then they go on to say that there is a family, Bufonidae, which are true toads. (Here come the warts.) True toads have bumpy skins and bulging glands behind their eyes. Unlike frogs, they are more terrestrial than aquatic and have feet that are "only slightly" webbed. I'm finding this all rather hard to grasp; it's just too subtle for me. So I'm just going to pretend toads are the warty guys, and continue on from there.

So these "true" toads, the ones in the genus Bufo, live near water in cool dank locales and absorb moisture through their warty skins. They give off a poisonous white fluid from their skins which stings if you touch them, though, contrary to popular belief, won't cause warts. Toads eat creepy crawly grub-like things. The females lay their eggs in strands of jelly in the water and males come and fertilize them. Like frogs, toads go through several stages of development, the tadpole gradually metamorphizing into the adult toad.

Some people keep toads as pets, especially the alarmingly-named fire bellied toad, which is however very tiny and not really scary at all. It can't stick its tongue out like other frogs and toads, and has to jump up to catch its prey. Find out about all about care and feeding of these beasties here.

Perhaps it's not surprising, given the warts and oozing poison and insect-eating, that toad is also a derogatory term for a really creepy or disgusting person.

For more toad-related information, see:
American toad
A toad can die of light!
cane toad
Colorado river toad
Frog and toad
Horned toad
I have a buddy. My buddy's a toad
licking toads
Mr. Toad's wild Ride
No toad sexing
noxious toad
sea toad
She axed me, so I jus' toad 'er.
Surinam toad
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Them Toad Suckers
The Old Toad
Toadeater
toad in the hole
toad sexing
toad tunnel
toad the wet sprocket
toady
warty bliggins, the toad

Toad (aka "Kinopio" in Japan), the loyal mushroom retainer from the Super Mario Brothers universe, is one of those characters whom you may not notice most of the time, but would miss if he weren't around. He's a small, short fellow with a mushroom cap for a hat and a white vest and pants. He serves the Mushroom Kingdom as Princess Toadstool/Princess Peach's highest-ranking servant. His first appearance was in the original Super Mario Brothers, but he didn't really come into his own until Super Mario Brothers 2 (which was his first playable appearance). His skills included quick lifting, fast running, and short jumping height. He returned to nonplayable form in Super Mario Brothers 3 as the resident of Toad's House, a place where Mario could pick up a free item. He was not, however, the mushroom retainer warning Mario that a Koopaling has stolen the magic wand (that mushroomite is Wooster). Subsequent appearances have seen him selling items and playing in sporting events. The Super Mario Brothers comic books published by Valiant in 1991 depicted Toad as a coffee table fanatic and aspiring journalist. In the various Mario cartoons, such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Toad is seen as a cowardly 'shroom with a heart of gold.

Toad Game Appearances

toad

Toad in a hole ; meat baked or boiled in pye-crust.

He or she sits like a toad on a chopping-block ; a saying of any who sits ill on horseback.

As much need of it as a toad of a side-pocket ; said of a person who desires any thing for which he has no real occasion.

As full of money as a toad is of feathers.
toad eater

A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous.

Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Toad (?), n. [OE. tode, tade, AS. tadie, tadige; of unknown origin. Cf. Tadpole.] Zool.

Any one of numerous species of batrachians belonging to the genus Bufo and allied genera, especially those of the family Bufonidae. Toads are generally terrestrial in their habits except during the breeding season, when they seek the water. Most of the species burrow beneath the earth in the daytime and come forth to feed on insects at night. Most toads have a rough, warty skin in which are glands that secrete an acrid fluid.

⇒ The common toad (Bufo vulgaris) and the natterjack are familiar European species. The common American toad (B. lentiginosus) is similar to the European toad, but is less warty and is more active, moving chiefly by leaping.

Obstetrical toad. Zool. See under Obstetrical. -- Surinam toad. Zool. See Pita. -- Toad lizard Zool., a horned toad. -- Toad pipe Bot., a hollow-stemmed plant (Equisetum limosum) growing in muddy places. Dr. Prior. -- Toad rush Bot., a low-growing kind of rush (Juncus bufonius). -- Toad snatcher Zool., the reed bunting. [Prov. Eng.] -- Toad spittle. Zool. See Cuckoo spit, under Cuckoo. -- Tree toad. Zool. See under Tree.

 

© Webster 1913.

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