Hyena definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (6)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

noun Any of several carnivorous mammals of the family Hyaenidae of Africa and Asia, which feed as scavengers and have powerful jaws, relatively short hind limbs, and coarse hair.

Century Dictionary (3)

A carnivorous quadruped of the genus Hyæna or family Hyænidæ. There are several kinds of hyenas. The common striped or laughing hyena, Canis hyæna or Hyæna striata, known to the ancients as a wild beast of Libya, has long been celebrated for the great size and strength of its neck and jaws, its formidable teeth, its prowling nocturnal habits, its singular voice, and its propensity for robbing graves. It has a wide geographical distribution, including most of Africa and much of Asia, as Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and India. It is an unsightly animal of ferocious aspect, of the size of a large dog, with shaggy pelage bristling over the shoulders, a short bushy tail, large eyes and ears, thick blunt muzzle, and peculiar carriage, due to the low hind quarters, high shoulders, and long heavy neck. Its feet are digitigrade, with blunt non-retractile claws. Its color is brownish-gray, more or less distinctly and extensively banded or striped crosswise with black on the back, sides, and limbs. The animal is nocturnal, hiding by day in caves, and hunting by night in packs for its food, which is chiefly carrion, though it often preys upon living animals. It is not less cowardly than ravenous, but is capable of being tamed and even domesticated. The brown hyena, H. brunnea, inhabits southern Africa; it belongs to the same restricted genus as the striped hyena, but is mostly of a dark-brown color, banded only on the limbs, and the pelage is remarkably long and shaggy, growing to a length of 8 or 10 inches on the back and sides. The spotted hyena, H. crocuta or Crocuta maculata, is a more distinct species, generically different from either of the foregoing, inhabiting southern parts of Africa. As its name implies, it is spotted instead of striped; and it is rather smaller than H. striata, and has a less shaggy pelage. In this species the length of the neck, size of the head, shortness of the loins, and lowness of the hind quarters are specially notable. The cave-hyena, H. spelæus, is an extinct form closely related to the spotted hyena: its remains occur in caverns. There are also other fossils to which the name hyena has been applied, and the hyena-dog is called painted hyena. And scorning all the taming arts of man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell. Thomson, Summer, l. 921
The pouched dog, the thylacine dasyure of Tasmania, Thylacinus cynocephalus: so called from its predaceous and carnivorous habits. See zebra-wolf.
Also spelled hyæna.

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It was that little hyena there Mentally Carstairs docketed for reference the astonishing fact that everyone referred to Gleason's nephew as a hyena, skunk, or snake. — June, 1943
The spotted hyena, which is the largest member of the hyena family, is appropriately named the laughing hyena.
A man does not put into a box bound with iron the carrion which he meets on the highway; he merely passes around it But a hyena is confined in a cage," whispered Tutmosis It is too early yet. — The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt
Memory is a hyena, always scratching up our dead selves! — Semiramis and Other Plays Semiramis, Carlotta And The Poet
One of the most characteristic marks of the hyena is the inequality in the development of its limbs. — The Bush Boys History and Adventures of a Cape Farmer and his Family

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Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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cheetah · hyaena · leopard · jackal · coyote · lioness · boar · cougar · antelope · lynx · tiger · porcupine

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hyena: hyenas

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English hiena, from Old French hiene, from Latin hyaena, from Greek huaina, feminine of hūs, swine (from its bristly mane like a hog's); see sū- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

Formerly hyen, hyene, q. v.; = French hyène = Provencal hiena, yenna, iana = Spanish hiena = Portuguese hyena = Italian jena = Dutch hyena = German hyäne = Danish hyæne = Swedish hyena, from Latin hyæna, from Greek υ%36αινα, a hyena, so called from its bristly mane, like a hog's, from ὐς, a hog (= Latin sus = English sow), + feminine termination -αινα.

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