Turtling

1. What is turtling in gaming?

Playing defensively

In gaming, turtling is a strategy in which a player plays incredibly defensively, forcing their opponent to be the aggressor in a match. This tactic gets its name from turtles' propensity to withdraw into their protective shells when attacked.

Turtling can be a successful strategy, if a turtler is able to provoke an unprepared opponent into attacking them. In these instances, the turtler can often mop up what remains of their opponent in a quick counterattack.

In practice, however, most players are smart enough not to attack into a turtler's superior defenses. Thus, turtling looks a lot like stalling, and it can make a game drag on forever. For this reason, many games (and game mechanics) discourage turtling and instead incentivize more dynamic gameplay.

Example

Turtling used to be my primary strategy, but eventually I got bored of it. I'd rather lose quickly than win a three hour game
A Power Rangers Legacy Wars player asking how to beat turtling opponents
A Power Rangers Legacy Wars player asking how to beat turtling opponents

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Updated May 16, 2023
2. What does turtling mean?

Breaching of a bowel movement

Turtling refers to the breaching of a person's bowel movement (BM). The name comes from the similar movement of a turtle poking his head out of his shell.

Turtling is a dangerous game to play because if you lose, there's no way of putting the toothpaste back in the tube. But it's not typically done for fun, it usually happens when trying to hold back the urge until you can find a restroom, or a tree to hide behind.

Example

He rushed to the BR like he just rode a horse for a week
Yeah, he was totally turtling

That turtling feeling

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Updated April 8, 2019

Turtling definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Turtling" means. The various definitions, examples, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

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