cottonmouth
Americannoun
-
cottonmouths
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cottonmouth
1825–35, cotton + mouth, so called from the whiteness of its lips and mouth
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.
See Examples For:
Fortune said he’d seen plenty of cottonmouth snakes and rattlesnakes in Texas, and he’d once come across a 5-foot bullsnake.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023
And the previous homeowners had found venomous snakes on the property, including a cottonmouth coiled by the pool.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2022
He spends a lot of time helping panicked newcomers, who tend to think every snake they come across is a cottonmouth that they need to kill.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2022
This federally owned land, essentially a scrubby marsh with partially waterlogged woodland, home to bears and cottonmouth snakes, spans around 250,000 acres.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 7, 2019
All afternoon he’d been fretting about those elusive cottonmouth moccasins, wondering why the reptile wrangler hadn’t been able to find them.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
They can even handle the bite from venomous snakes such as cottonmouths, timber rattlesnakes and copperheads.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2022
The world hosts hundreds of wildly different venomous snake species, from brightly banded coral snakes to camouflaged cottonmouths.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 26, 2021
If cottonmouths swam through our lakes and rivers, what else might be hiding there?
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2020
Rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, coral snakes—bites from all will be painful at least, deadly at most.
From Golf Digest ● May 3, 2018
“I knew the trainer would drag ’em outta here soon as he saw the cottonmouths.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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.
