Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large aquatic salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) of the eastern and central United States. Also called mudpuppy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A protracted and reckless debauch or drunken frolic. See bender, 4.
- n. The menopome, Menopoma alleghaniensis (or Protonopsis horrida), a large aquatic salamander with gillslits and 4 short legs, common in the Ohio valley; one of several such creatures known as mud-puppies and water-dogs. See Menopoma.
Wiktionary
- n. Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, a giant salamander of North America that inhabits large, swiftly flowing streams with rocky bottoms.
- n. A reckless, headstrong person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A large North American aquatic salamander (Protonopsis horrida or Menopoma Alleghaniensis). It is very voracious and very tenacious of life. Also called
alligator , andwater dog .
WordNet 3.0
- n. large salamander of North American rivers and streams
Etymologies
- hell + bender, possibly from hell-bent (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Reaching lengths of over two feet in length and weighing over 3 lbs., the hellbender is the largest amphibian species found in North America and the third largest salamander in the world, coming in behind the Chinese and the Japanese giant salamanders which are truly massive.”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Salamander Eating Habits
“As the continent's largest frog species and second largest amphibian the hellbender is the largest, bullfrogs are powerful predators that will eat anything smaller than themselves that they can fit down their large mouths.”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Newt Kills Frog With Chemical Warfare
“A newt -- aka a hellbender or mud puppy -- is a slimy amphibian with an uncanny ability to reinvent itself by regenerating limbs, eyes, jaws, a spinal cord, even its heart.”
“Salamanders, which thrive in moist environments that keep their skin wet, number 2 dozen species, from the pigmy salamander that is less than 2 inches at maturity to the hellbender, which is nearly 30 inches.”
Simon & Schuster: The Field Guide to Wildlife Habitats of the Eastern United States
“There are three types left on the planet-the Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders and a much smaller American giant salamander called the hellbender”
“Considering their impressive predatory feeding behavior, the hellbender's two foot length is large enough for me!”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Salamander Eating Habits
“The videos below show two kinds of salamander, the terrestrial red-legged salamander (Plethodon shermani) and the aquatic hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), engaging in their respective feeding behaviors.”
The Huffington Post: David Mizejewski: Salamander Eating Habits
“Lori Williams, a state wildlife biologist who works closely with Mr. Groves, is hoping to raise a hellbender in her basement that can easily be put on display at festivals, though she is concerned about the animals' reputation as escape artists.”
The Wall Street Journal: Green Movement's New Mascot: the Slimy Snot Otter
“Last September, an Ohio man pleaded guilty to possessing an endangered species and was fined $1,500 after he was found with a two-foot-long hellbender that had been tagged by scientists in New York, says Jeff Collingwood, a state wildlife investigator in Ohio.”
The Wall Street Journal: Green Movement's New Mascot: the Slimy Snot Otter
“The only other kind, the Eastern hellbender, is also harder to find than it was just a few decades ago; no one is sure how many are left.”
The Wall Street Journal: Green Movement's New Mascot: the Slimy Snot Otter
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hellbender’.
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Insulting animals
pseudo-babbler, buff-bellied fat-..., eel-mother, spongehead catshark, slimy offshore po..., longnose sucker, smooth lumpsucker, pimpled lumpsucker, bumpy lumpsucker, clown toado, puddingwife, hagfish and 70 more...
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Open List: Prodigies of Ugliness
List name taken from the Swedish naturalist Carl Jakob Sundevall's characterization of the greater adjutant stork as a "prodigy of ugliness". This list could include man-made things like cities, a...
elephant man, humphead parrotfish, naked mole rat, warthog, rust belt, international style, cellular phone to..., suburbs, anglerfish, lamprey, Michael Jackson's..., strip malls and 17 more...
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Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
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Best beasts
agouti, doodlebug, colugo, yeti crab, gribble, unau, kudu, basenji, boomslang, triantelope, acouchy, hallucigenia and 75 more...
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short-term parking
A halfway home for new words until they find their true list.
apophlegmatic, phlegethon, phlegmagogue, phlegmon, blenny, blennorhagic, blepharism, ankyloblepharon, lavacultophilia, balneotherapy, balneophile, clyster and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hellbender.
reesetee And heckbender. ;-> Apr 27, 2011
ruzuzu Also see bender. Apr 27, 2011