Turtle Puns

• Total→ Turtle: “I am in turtle awe of her skills.”
• Totally→ Turtley: “Turtley!” and “This is turtley amazing!”
• Totalitarian→ Turtleitarian: “It’s a cruel turtle-itarian regime.”
• Celebration→ Shellebration: As in “After finishing we should have a shellebration.”
• Startle → Sturtle: “Oh! You sturtled me!” and “That was sturtling news.”
• Turtle-neck: A “turtle-neck” is a high, close-fitting neck on a shirt. Can be used as a turtle pun with the right context.
• Sel* → Shell*: If a word starts with “sel” a shell pun can be made by switching it with “shell”. For example: shellection (selection), shellect (select), shelldom (seldom), shellfless (selfless), shellfish (selfish).
• *sel → *shell: Words ending in “sel” can often be punned upon with “shell”: vesshell (vessel), tasshell (tassel), weashell (weasel), musshell (mussel), etc.
• *sel* → *shell*: Words containing “sel” can yeild nice puns on “shell”: Hershellf, himshellf, themshellves, itshellf, myshellf, yourshelf, yourshelves, convershelly, counshelling, preshellected, overshelling, undershelling, ushellessely, weashelling.
• Shall→ Shell: As in “Shell I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and “He who lives by the sword shell die by the sword.”
• *cial → *shell: When a word has “cial” as a suffix, this suffix can usually be swapped out for “shell” to create a shell pun: soshell (social), speshell (special), offishell (official), finanshell, commershell, crushell, judishell, artifishell, provinshell, rashell, benefishell, superfishell, fashell, glashell, sacrifishel, antisoshell.
• Sell → Shell: “How many do we have left to shell?”
• Hell → Shell: “The party last night was a shell of a time.”
• Flip her → Flipper: As in “Don’t you dare flip her off! That’s rude!” and “We’re going to need to flip her on her belly before the surgery.”
• Flip out → Flipper-t: “Woah! No need to flipper-t about my bad turtle puns.”
• Taught us → Tortoise: “Our parents tortoise to be kind to animals.”
• Tore this → Tortoise: “Turtle puns tortoise family apart.”
• Bleak → Beak: Many turtles have beak-like mouths – “The outlook is beak.”
• Riddle → Ridley: Refers to a type of small turtle that lives in tropical seas – “Ridley me this!” and “She speaks in ridleys.”
• A → Loggerhead: Refers to a species of large marine turtle. Also used as an insult for someone who speaks or behaves unintelligently: “That news anchor is a bit of a loggerhead.”
• Snapping: A “snapping turtle” is a type of turtle known for its aggression and powerful jaw. The term “snapping” is also used for quick and irritable speech: “The teacher was intermittently snapping at her.”
• Snap in → Snapping: Refers to a type of turtle. “To snap in quarters.”
• Napping → Snapping: “Did I wake you up? Na, I was jus’ snapping.”
• A → Leatherback: Refers to a very large black turtle with a thick leathery shell.
• Stinkpot: Refers to a species of turtle which can defensively produce a foul smell. Can also refer to a contemptible or foul smelling person or thing: “Jason, you stinkpot! Stop making turtle puns.”
• Plaster on → Plastron: Refers to the underside part of a turtle’s (or tortoise’s, or snake’s) shell: “You may need to put some plastron after I beat you in this pun battle.”
• S’cute → Scute: A “scute” refers to large bony or horny plate as on an armadillo or turtle: “Aww, scute how he walks all wobbly like that.”
• Slow: Although many turtles are quite fast (The pacific leatherback turtle can swim as fast as 34 km/h), the “turtles are slow” stereotype may allow you to use the word “slow” as a turtle pun in the right context.
• Mutant: The series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may be well-known enough for the word “mutant” to constitute a turtle pun in the right context.
• Mossback: A “mossback” can refer to a very old turtle that, because of its age, has grown moss on its back. It can also refer to a very conservative person; one with old-fashioned views.
• Hair → Hare: Because of the fame of the Tortoise and the Hare story, one might be able to make a subtle turtle/tortoise pun (with the right context) by switching “hair” for “hare“.

As you can see our turtle puns list is still short! Below is a list of turtle-related words that we still need puns for. If you’d like to help us out, please post suggestions in the comments! Also, this source of turtle-related words may be handy (as might this source).

• ? → Hawksbill: Refers to a small, endangered tropical sea turtle.
• ? → Reptile: All turtles and tortoises are reptiles.
• ? → Carapace: Refers to the hard upper shell of a turtle, crustacean, or arachnid.
• ? → Raphael: A fictional turtle from TMNT.
• ? → Michaelangelo: A fictional turtle from TMNT.
• ? → Donatello: A fictional turtle from TMNT.
• ? → Leonardo: A fictional turtle from TMNT.
• ? → Genbu: Refers to a mythical turtle in Japanese Mythology.
• ? → Kurma: Means “turtle” in Sanskrit and refers to the Hindu Turtle God.
• ? → Great A’Tuin: Refers to the “World Turtle” that helps carry the world in the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchet.
• ? → Mock turtle: Refers to a fictional turtle in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll (wiki).
• ? → Galapagos: Galapagos tortoises are a species of giant tortoise found on the Galapagos islands.
• ? → Anapsid: Refers to “a primitive reptile having no opening in the temporal region of the skull; all extinct except turtles”
• ? → Sea turtle
• ? → Tortoiseshell