Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A large Australian serpent, Morelia variegata, a kind of python or boa: so called from its variegated coloration.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The carpet-snake is occasionally kept in the house or in the barn to destroy mice and other small vermin.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • Some of the non-venomous snakes of Australia are very handsome, the green tree-snake and the carpet-snake (a species of python) for examples.

    Peeps At Many Lands: Australia Frank Fox 1917

  • As Norman ran into the kitchen, he stopped short and pointed the gun, for right in the middle of the floor, writhing about in a way that might easily have been mistaken for menace, was a large carpet-snake.

    The Dingo Boys The Squatters of Wallaby Range George Manville Fenn 1870

  • The grubs were tempting, but the carpet-snake was not; so Shanter had it all to himself, eating till Rifle laughed, and said that he must be like india-rubber, else he could never have held so much.

    The Dingo Boys The Squatters of Wallaby Range George Manville Fenn 1870

  • Now it would be down some lovely creek, overhung by wide-spreading ferns, in search of fish; now to hunt out and slay dangerous serpents, or capture the carpet-snake, which the black looked upon as a delicacy.

    The Dingo Boys The Squatters of Wallaby Range George Manville Fenn 1870

  • The most common with us were the brown, black, and whip snakes, and the death-adder, all poisonous; and the carpet-snake, harmless.

    Australian Search Party Charles Henry Eden 1858

  • a fine kangaroo, and a carpet-snake over nine feet in length.

    Spinifex and Sand David Wynford Carnegie 1885

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