hamadryad

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“
"Why, you'll look like a hamadryad, all in these wood browns It was an uncommonly pretty striped petticoat, in two alternating shades of dark and golden brown, with just a hair-line of black defining their edges; and the border was one broad, soft, velvety band of black, and a narrower one following it above and below, easing the contrast and blending the colors.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Greek & Roman Mythology A wood nymph who lives only as long as the tree of which she is the spirit lives.
  2. noun See king cobra.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

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

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Examples (50)

  • A dreadful-looking creature, a toad that preys on the real or common toads, swallowing them alive just as the hamadryad swallows other serpents, venomous or not, and as the cribo of Martinique, a big non-venomous serpent, kills and swallows the deadly fer-de-lance In summer we had no fear of this creature, as it buries itself in the soil and aestivates during the hot, dry season, and comes forth in wet weather. —  Far Away And Long Ago
  • He set down the hamadryad, who stepped daintily over the bodies. —  Ogre Ogre
  • For now all could see how the hamadryad was failing. —  Ogre Ogre
  • And the hamadryad was too weak even to make the attempt. —  Ogre Ogre
  • The hamadryad was hugging its trunk in ecstasy, her body almost indistinguishable from it, and her color was returning. —  Ogre Ogre
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English amadriad, from Latin Hamadryas, Hamadryad-, from Greek Hamadruas : hama, together with; see sem-1 in Indo-European roots + Druas, dryad (from drūs, oak; see deru- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin hamadryas, plural hamadryades, from Greek ἁμαδρυάς, plural ἁμαδρυάδες (also ἀδρυάς, plural ἁδρυάδες), from ἂμα, together with (= English same, q. v.) (or ἀ- copulative), + δρῦς, a tree, especially the oak-tree, = English tree: see dryad.
 

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/ˈhæmədraɪæd/
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