diamondback
Americannoun
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Also called: diamondback terrapin. diamondback turtle. any edible North American terrapin of the genus Malaclemys, esp M. terrapin, occurring in brackish and tidal waters and having diamond-shaped markings on the shell: family Emydidae
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a large North American rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus, having cream-and-grey diamond-shaped markings
Etymology
Origin of diamondback
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The researchers discovered that it could block the activity of many metalloproteinase toxins found in western diamondback rattlesnake venom.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
It turned out to be a diamondback terrapin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
In 1946, a sideshow fixture billed as “Miss Elsie Marks, the Cobra Woman,” died after her seven-foot diamondback rattlesnake bit her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2025
The woman placed a box next to the home’s front door Monday evening when the eastern diamondback snake jumped out and bit her, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
