Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius, found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts south of Fort Macon, Ga., up the Mississippi Valley, and west to Oklahoma. It is of a dark ashen-color, marked along the back with rounded brown blotches, and is one of several rattlesnakes to which the name Massasauga is given.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Watch your step!" he cried, nimbly avoiding the attentions of a ground-rattler which tried to caress his ankle from under a saw-palmetto.
Police!!! Henry Hutt 1899
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He noticed, too, her sweetness with the dogs, her quick encouragement when work was well done, her brief rebuke when the red dog, galloping recklessly down wind, jumped a ground-rattler and came within a hair's breadth of being bitten.
The Firing Line 1899
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So Hamil scooped out a trench with his hunting-knife and they buried the little ground-rattler while both dogs looked on, growling.
The Firing Line 1899
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Next to these a large sized cotton-mouth moccasin is perhaps most to be dreaded, to be followed, depending upon their size, by the other varieties of rattlesnakes, the copperheads, and finally the ground-rattler.
Health on the Farm A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene 1896
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