Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A venomous tropical American pit viper (Bothrops atrox) having brown and grayish markings.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The lanceheaded or yellow viper, Craspedocephalus (or Bothrops)lanceolatus, of the family Crotalidæ, a large and very venomous serpent of the warm parts of America. It is from 5 to 7 feet long, and is capable of making considerable springs when in pursuit of prey or of some object which has irritated it. Its bite is often fatal, the only antidote of any avail seeming to be, as in the case of bites of other venomous snakes, ardent spirits. This serpent infests sugar-plantations in the West India islands, and is dreaded alike by man and beast. The tail ends in a horny spine, which scrapes harshly against rough objects, but does not rattle. See cut under
Craspedocephalus .
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A large, venomous serpent (Trigonocephalus lanceolatus) of Brazil and the West Indies. It is allied to the rattlesnake, but has no rattle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large extremely venomous pit viper of Central America and South America
Etymologies
- French, the iron of a lance, spearhead. (Wiktionary)
- French, from fer de lance, spearhead : fer, iron + de, of + lance, spear. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The more ferocious snakes here include fer-de-lance Bothrops asper, coral snake Micrurus spp., boa constrictor Boa constrictor, palm pit-viper Bothriechis spp. and bushmaster Lachesis muta.”
“Yet it wasn't until Bill and I brought home the fer-de-lance in a mayonnaise jar that Mama laid down an absolute law about no contact with Brazilian wildlife of any sort.”
“The snakes include the anaconda Eunectes murinus, fer-de-lance Bothrops asper, palm pit-vipers Bothriechis spp., coral snakes Micrurus spp., the bushmaster Lachesis muta and boa constrictor Boa constrictor.”
“The more ferocious snakes that occur here include fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), coral snakes (Micrurus spp.), boa constrictors (Boa constrictor), and bushmasters (Lachesis muta).”
“It was a full moon that night which added to the drama of walking along in a mostly black jungle where we had just been told about poisonous fer-de-lance snakes that stalk their prey, not to mention the jaguars and ocelots.... which we would be lucky to see in the first place!”
“Her amazing tolerance for pain and resistance to poison came from an incident in her childhood in Cuba when she was bitten by a fer-de-lance, the most poisonous snake in the hemisphere.”
“Don, a hardcore nature enthusiast, was excited to see the extremely large barba amarilla snake, or fer-de-lance, "found" by Juan Carlos Meléndez that the Guacamaya Research Station preserved for us.”
“At that hour of the afternoon, this was the favored territory of the fer-de-lance, a pit viper that made his skin crawl.”
““Willy was bitten by a fer-de-lance, one of the deadliest snakes in the world.””
“The average time of death from the bite of a fer-de-lance is twenty minutes.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fer-de-lance’.
-
Snakes
python, adder, snake, asp, cobra, bull snake, copperhead, sea snake, viper, boa, cottonmouth, rattlesnake and 15 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fer-de-lance.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.