| Learning / English Dictionary |
SERPENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Limbless scaly elongate reptile; some are venomous
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("serpent" is a kind of...):
diapsid; diapsid reptile (reptile having a pair of openings in the skull behind each eye)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "serpent"):
colubrid; colubrid snake (mostly harmless temperate-to-tropical terrestrial or arboreal or aquatic snakes)
blind snake; worm snake (wormlike burrowing snake of warm regions having vestigial eyes)
constrictor (any of various large nonvenomous snakes that kill their prey by crushing it in its coils)
elapid; elapid snake (any of numerous venomous fanged snakes of warmer parts of both hemispheres)
sea snake (any of numerous venomous aquatic viviparous snakes having a fin-like tail; of warm littoral seas; feed on fish which they immobilize with quick-acting venom)
viper (venomous Old World snakes characterized by hollow venom-conducting fangs in the upper jaw)
Holonyms ("serpent" is a member of...):
Ophidia; Serpentes; suborder Ophidia; suborder Serpentes (snakes)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An obsolete bass cornet; resembles a snake
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("serpent" is a kind of...):
cornet; horn; trump; trumpet (a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A firework that moves in serpentine manner when ignited
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("serpent" is a kind of...):
firework; pyrotechnic ((usually plural) a device with an explosive that burns at a low rate and with colored flames; can be used to illuminate areas or send signals etc.)
Context examples:
It was not until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a few hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge flippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee, who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I trust, said Mr. Micawber, solemnly, that my son Wilkins will ever bear in mind, that he had infinitely better put his fist in the fire, than use it to handle the serpents that have poisoned the life-blood of his unhappy parent!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I felt very brave at being left alone in the solitary house, the protector of Em'ly and Mrs. Gummidge, and only wished that a lion or a serpent, or any ill-disposed monster, would make an attack upon us, that I might destroy him, and cover myself with glory.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We look into the glittering windows of the jewellers' shops; and I show Sophy which of the diamond-eyed serpents, coiled up on white satin rising grounds, I would give her if I could afford it; and Sophy shows me which of the gold watches that are capped and jewelled and engine-turned, and possessed of the horizontal lever-escape-movement, and all sorts of things, she would buy for me if she could afford it; and we pick out the spoons and forks, fish-slices, butter-knives, and sugar-tongs, we should both prefer if we could both afford it; and really we go away as if we had got them!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
