cottonmouth
Americannoun
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
Of these snakes, two were venomous—one copperhead and one cottonmouth.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2022
And the previous homeowners had found venomous snakes on the property, including a cottonmouth coiled by the pool.
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
Clare yipped as another cottonmouth came in for a closer look and took a blow that sent it flying.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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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
The cottonmouths drew out of the water, their slitted pupils narrowing on Clare.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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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.