colubrine
Americanadjective
-
of or resembling a snake; snakelike.
-
belonging or pertaining to the subfamily Colubrinae, comprising the typical colubrid snakes.
adjective
-
of or resembling a snake
-
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 only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring- snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but very vicious and truculent colubrine snake.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
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
Most of the colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that we meet everywhere.
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.
