colubrine

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

adjective

of or resembling a snake; snakelike.

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

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

Historical Examples of 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

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