adder

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So soon therefore as they saw my face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I killed, and then found each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or pannicle in her belly, much like unto a soft white jelly, which maketh me to be of the opinion that our adder is the viper indeed.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun One that adds, especially a computational device that performs arithmetic addition.
  2. noun See viper.
  3. noun Any of several nonvenomous snakes, such as the milk snake of North America, popularly believed to be harmful.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples

  • Kaz readied his battle-axe, knowing that even if the unliving creature feared it, it wouldn2t do the minotaur much good if the dragon simply dropped on top of him. —  Kaz the Minotaur
  • So soon therefore as they saw my face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I killed, and then found each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or pannicle in her belly, much like unto a soft white jelly, which maketh me to be of the opinion that our adder is the viper indeed. —  Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series)
  • The skin of the adder is a remedy against fevers. —  Welsh Folk-Lore a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales
  • In this he has the superiority over the viper; he knows that his poison has taken effect, when he hears the victim cry; — the adder is deaf. —  Life of Lord Byron
  • The skin of the adder is a remedy against fevers The Charms performed with Rosemary Rosemary dried in the sun and made into powder, tied in a cloth around the right arm, will make the sick well The smoke of rosemary bark, sniffed, will, even if you are in gaol, release you The leaves made into salve, placed on a wound, where the flesh is dead, will cure the wound A spoon made out of its wood will make whatever you eat therewith nutritious Place it under the door post, and no snake nor adder can ever enter thy house The leaves placed in beer or wine will keep these liquids from becoming sour, and give them such a flavour that you will dispose of them quickly Place a branch of rosemary on the barrel, and it will keep thee from fever, even though thou drink of it for a whole day Such were some of the wonderful virtues of this plant, as given in the Brython_, vol. —  Welsh Folk-Lore a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales
 

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Adder has been looked up 249 times, favorited 0 times, listed 8 times, and commented on once.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from an addre, alteration of a naddre, a snake, from Old English nǣdre, snake.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English adder, addere, addre, edder, eddre, etc., forms interchanging with the more correct nadder, naddere, naddre, nadre, neddere, neddre, etc. (through confusion of a nadder with an adder; cf. apron, auger, orange, umpire, which have lost their initial n in the same way), from Anglo-Saxon nædre, næddre = Old Saxon nadra = Dutch adder = Old High German natara, natra, Middle High German natere, nater, German natter = Icelandic nathra, feminine, nathr, masculine, = Gothic (Moesogothic) nadrs = Irish nathair = Welsh neidr, a snake, a serpent. The L. natrix, a water-snake, is a different word, properly a swimmer, from nare, swim. The word has no connection with atter, poison, q. v.
  2. from add + -er.
 

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/ˈædər/
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