common toad
noun1
A toad of species Bufo bufo, principally of Europe.
- Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water.1946 April 12, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “[“I Write as I Please”] Some Thoughts on the Common Toad”, in Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays, London: Secker and Warburg, published 1950, →OCLC, page 202: