a. Also spelean. [f. mod.L. spelæ-us, f. L. spēlæum, ad. Gr. σπήλαιον cave.]

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  1.  Inhabiting a cave or caves; frequenting caverns; cave-dwelling.

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1839.  G. Roberts, Dict. Geol., 161. Spelæan, that frequent caverns. A term applied to the hyæna.

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1872.  Fraser’s Mag., Feb. 224/1 (Imp. Dict.). Those primitive spelæan people, who contended against and trapped the mammoth and hairy rhinoceros.

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1874.  Dawkins, Cave Hunt., iii. 118. The remains of the spelæan variety of the spotted hyæna were very abundant in the cave-earth.

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  2.  Of the nature of a cave.

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1882.  Owen, in Longman’s Mag., I. 67. More satisfactorily … than in any other spelæan retreat which I have explored.

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