scorpion

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various arachnids of the order Scorpionida, of warm dry regions, having a segmented body and an erectile tail tipped with a venomous sting.
2. n. See Scorpius.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In zoology, an arthropod of the order Scorpionida. It has an elongated body: the cephalothorax is continuous with the abdomen, which ends in a long slender postabdomen, which latter can be curled up over the back and is armed at the end with a sharp sting or telson, more or less hooked like a claw, and connected with a venomgland, so that its puncture inflicts a poisoned wound. (See also cuts under Buthus and Scorpionidæ.) The sting of a scorpion is painful, and is said to paralyze the organs of speech. The scorpion has also a large pair of nippers in front, like the great claws of a lobster, and the whole figure is suggestive of a little lobster, an inch or a few inches long. Scorpions abound in tropical and warm temperate countries. In the former they attain the maximum size of 8 or 10 inches, and are very formidable. They commonly lurk in dark retreats, as under stones aud logs, and are particularly active at night. They are carnivorous and predaceous; they seize their prey with their nippers, and sting it to death. Scorpions are justly dreaded, but some popular beliefs respecting them have no fonndation in fact, as that when the creature is surrounded by fire it stings itself to death rather than be burned, or that some fluid extracted from a scorpion will cure its sting.
2. n. Hence Some creature likened to or mistaken for a scorpion, and poisonous or supposed to be so. A false scorpion; any member of the Pseudoscorpiones. Among these arachnidans, belonging to the same class as the true scorpion, but to a different order, the members of the genus Chelifer are known as book-scorpions. (See Cheliferidæ, and cut under Pseudoscorpiones.) Those called whip-scorpions are of the family Thelyphonidæ. (See cut under Pedipalpi.) Closely related to these, and sometimes sharing the name, are the Phrynidæ. (See cut under Phrynidæ.)
3. n. In ichthyology, a scorpion-fish or sea-scorpion; one of several different members of the Scorpænidæ, some of which are also called scorpene and sculpin. See cut under Scorpæna, and etymology of Scolopendra.
4. n. [capitalized] In astronomy, the eighth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about October 23d. See Scorpio, 2.
5. n. A kind of whip said to have been armed with points like that of a scorpion's tail; a scourge, described as having a handle of iron, or of wood braced and ferruled with iron, and two, three, or more chains attached, like the lashes of a whip, and set with balls, rings, or angled and pointed masses of iron.
6. n. An old military engine, used chiefly in the defense of the walls of a town. It resembled the ballista in form, consisting essentially of two beams with ropes stretched between them, from the middle of which ropes rose a third beam, called the stylus, so disposed as to be pulled back and let go at pleasure; to the top of this beam were fastened iron hooks to winch a sling of iron or hemp for throwing stones was hung.
7. n. An instrument for grappling a batteringram.
8. n. A gun whose dolphins represented the scorpion.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various arachnids of the order Scorpiones, related to the spiders, characterised by two large front pincers and a curved tail with a poisonous sting in the end.
2. n. An ancient military engine for hurling stones and other missiles.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of pulmonate arachnids of the order Scorpiones, having a suctorial mouth, large claw-bearing palpi, and a caudal sting.
2. n. (Zoöl.), Local, U. S. The pine or gray lizard (Sceloporus undulatus).
3. n. (Zoöl.) The scorpene.
4. n. (Script.) A painful scourge.
5. n. (Astron.) A sign and constellation. See Scorpio.
6. n. (Antiq.) An ancient military engine for hurling stones and other missiles.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the eighth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from about October 23 to November 21
2. n. arachnid of warm dry regions having a long segmented tail ending in a venomous stinger
3. n. (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Scorpio