colubrine
Americanadjective
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of or resembling a snake; snakelike.
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belonging or pertaining to the subfamily Colubrinae, comprising the typical colubrid snakes.
adjective
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of or resembling a snake
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of, relating to, or belonging to the Colubrinae, a subfamily of harmless colubrid snakes
Etymology
Origin of colubrine
1520–30; < Latin colubrīnus, equivalent to colubr- (stem of coluber ) snake + -īnus -ine 1
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 bite of a cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit- vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and the coral-snake.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
But the effect of the venom of the poisonous colubrine snakes is totally different from, although to the full as deadly as, the effect of the poison of the rattlesnake or jararaca.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs, and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different qualities.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
Poisonous snakes are of several different families, but the most poisonous ones, those which are dangerous to man, belong to the two great families of the colubrine snakes and the vipers.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
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.
