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• asp
  asp

  noun

  any of several venomous snakes, especially the Egyptian cobra or the horned viper.
• Asp
  Asp

  abbreviation

  aspartic acid.
• ASP
  ASP

  abbreviation

  American selling price.

asp

¹ American  

[asp] / æsp /

noun

1. any of several venomous snakes, especially the Egyptian cobra or the horned viper.

2. Archaeology. uraeus.

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asp ² American  

[asp] / æsp /

noun

1. aspen.

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Asp ³ American  

abbreviation

Biochemistry.

1. aspartic acid.

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ASP ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. American selling price.

2. Computers. application service provider: a company that gives individuals or businesses access through the internet to specialized software applications and other computer-related services.

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asp ¹ British  

/ æsp /

noun

1. the venomous snake, probably Naja haje (Egyptian cobra), that caused the death of Cleopatra and was formerly used by the Pharaohs as a symbol of their power over life and death See also uraeus

2. Also called: asp viper.  a viper, Vipera aspis, that occurs in S Europe and is very similar to but smaller than the adder

3. another name for horned viper

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asp ² British  

/ æsp /

noun

1. an archaic name for the aspen

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Other Word Forms

• aspish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of asp¹

1300–50; back formation from Middle English aspis (taken as plural) < Latin < Greek aspís originally, shield

Origin of asp²

before 900; Middle English aspe, apse, Old English æsp ( e ), æps ( e ); cognate with Middle Low German aspe, Old High German aspa ( German Espe, with altered vowel < Old High German adj. espîn ), Old Norse ǫsp; akin to Latvian apse, Russian osína, Czech osika < North European Indo-European *aps-. See aspen

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

asp Asp ASP

We are always more afraid of something if it sounds like an artificial concoction rather than a natural product, even though asp venom and great white sharks are perfectly natural.

From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2026

Did she die by clasping an asp to her cleavage?

From Salon ● May 11, 2023

While playing outside at day care this week, Lauren Chambers told NBC 5 her 5-year-old daughter, Adrie, was stung by the fuzzy-looking asp caterpillar, also known as the southern flannel moth or puss caterpillar.

From Fox News ● Oct. 14, 2018

But rather than keeping it all at arms’ length, and blaming … I don’t know … somebody else, I want to bring it to my bosom like an asp and let it sting me.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 11, 2016

And knowing she didn’t want me anymore, well, the hurt coiled up inside me like an asp.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

Littler faced Nathan Aspinall in the semi-finals, and unusually probably had the crowd against him with The Asp from nearby Stockport.

From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2024

Aspinall hit just 25% of his, Smith only marginally better at 27.8% but crucially The Asp hit six of them.

From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2024

The 36 topologically equivalent residues of the structural scaffold include highly conserved residues such as Asn, Asp, Trp and Pro.

From Nature ● Feb. 13, 2013

“I see Richard Kern has a metal retractable baton, known as the Asp, out,” Officer Maloney said.

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2010

Without doubt, all four are foreign, except the Asp among Poplars, which is a native tree.

From Notes and Queries, Number 84, June 7, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Geneologists, etc. by Various

He lifted his ASP forecast for Samsung’s 64-gigabyte high-end specialized stick of computer memory from $1586 to $1805 by the fourth quarter of 2026, an increase justified by accelerating AI central processing unit demand.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

On the 19th day that the oil tanker ASP Avana was stuck in the Persian Gulf, its 47-year-old captain, Rakesh Ranjan Singh, died.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026

Firms put in bids below the ASP to win project contracts and then the government sets a new guaranteed price, known as the clearing price, based on those.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2025

Kuo blames the ASP increase on a potentially more expensive iPhone Pro and Pro Max, as well as a “higher shipment proportion.”

From The Verge ● Aug. 10, 2022

The angle ASP is the anomaly when the planet is at P. CA or a line drawn from S to D is the mean distance of the planet from the sun.

From History of Astronomy by George Forbes

Related Words

• cobra