colubrine

[ kol-uh-brahyn, -brin, -yuh- ]

/ ˈkɒl əˌbraɪn, -brɪn, -yə- /

adjective

of or resembling a snake; snakelike.

belonging or pertaining to the subfamily Colubrinae, comprising the typical colubrid snakes.

Nearby words

coltish, colton, coltrane, coltsfoot, colubrid, colubrine, colugo, colum, columba, columbarium, columbary

Origin of colubrine

1520–30; < Latin colubrīnus, equivalent to colubr- (stem of coluber) snake + -īnus -ine¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for colubrine

Perhaps the most curious of the colubrine snakes is the egg-eating snake of South Africa.
The Animal World, A Book of Natural History|Theodore Wood
There is always the colubrine equivalent of the personal equation to be taken into consideration.
Jungle Folk|Douglas Dewar

British Dictionary definitions for colubrine

colubrine

/ (ˈkɒljʊˌbraɪn, -brɪn) /

adjective

of or resembling a snake

of, relating to, or belonging to the Colubrinae, a subfamily of harmless colubrid snakes

Word Origin for colubrine

C16: from Latin colubrīnus, from coluber snake

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012