Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several venomous snakes of the genus Cerastes, such as the horned viper, having hornlike projections over each eye.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Some horned viper.
- n. A genus of very venomous African and Indian serpents, the horned vipers, of the suborder Solenoglypha and family Viperidæ, having a horn over each eye, and the tail distinct from the body. C. vipera or hasselquisti is the horned viper of northern Africa, a species known to the ancients.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A genus of poisonous African serpents, with a horny scale over each eye; the horned viper.
WordNet 3.0
- n. highly venomous viper of northern Africa and southwestern Asia having a horny spine above each eye
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Latin cerastēs, from Greek kerastēs, horned serpent, from keras, horn; see ker-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Dictionary under the word cerastes; and every time that we write one of these letters we are making a faded copy of the old picture.”
“The cerastes is a snake with horns like a ram's on its head; from this it gets its name, for the Greeks call horns kerata.”
“At the halting-place a "cerastes" (Echis carinata, Merr.), so called from the warty hollows over the eyes (?), was brought to me in a water-bag; the bearer transferred it to the spirit-bottle by neatly thrusting a packing-needle through the head.”
“The herpetofauna includes black-necked spitting cobra Naja nigricollis, African puff adder Bitis arietans, west African sand boa Eryx muelleri, sand viper Cerastes cerastes, desert monitor lizard Varanus griseus and various species of gecko.”
“Common reptiles in the ecoregion include the horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) and desert varan (Varanus griseus).”
“Indigenous reptiles include grey monitor lizard Varanus griseus, spiny-tailed lizard, Uromastix thomasi, venomous horned viper Cerastes cerastes and carpet viper Echis coloratus, hooded malpolon Malpolon moilensis, sandsnake Psammophis schokari and cat snake Telescopus dhara.”
“Today, the cerastes survives as a genus of small, venomous vipers, like this crazy-ass Sidewinder Desert Viper, AKA the crotalus cerastes.”
“Colubri enim et cerasti nomine diabolus uel antichristus significatur ut est illud quod Iacob patriarcha de Dan filio sua prophetauit dicens: Fiat Dan coluber in uia et cerastes in semita mordet ungulas equi et cadet ascensat eius retro.”
“Non solum enim coluber antichristus set etiam cerastes uocatur.”
“Fit iterum cerastes in semita que quos fideles repperit et sese ad precepti celestis angusta itinera constringens non solum nequitia callide persuasionis impedit sed etiam terrore potestatis premit et in persecutionis angore post beneficia ficte dulcedinis, exercet cornua potestatis.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cerastes’.
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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Critters
cockle, cicada, appaloosa, brachiopod, bivalve, aye-aye, cygnet, alewife, chamois, ermine, drake, dugong and 381 more...
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bestiary
hippogryph, cockatrice, lamia, basilisk, centaur, cerastes, manticore, mermaid, strix, sphinx, loup garou, echeneis and 34 more...
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the mysterious flame of queen loana
what happens when a book has been translated from the italian and cognates have been used for the latinate words.
nadar, settle, pylorus, extrasystole, filobus, cenotaph, cuirassier, dragoon, zouave, lalique, capon, colloquy and 40 more...
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Mythical creatures
dragon, griffin, unicorn, chimera, centaur, minotaur, cameleopard, zahhak, azhi dahaka, ouroborus, draco, leviathan and 77 more...
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new words
glib, mendacity, cogent, moot, feckless, piquancy, bumptious, voluble, tantan, sparble, cerastes, palanquin and 36 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cerastes.
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