fer-de-lance

[ fer-dl-ans, -ahns ]

/ ˌfɛr dlˈæns, -ˈɑns /

noun

a large pit viper, Bothrops atrox, of tropical America.

Nearby words

feoffment, feosol, fepa, fepc, fer, fer-de-lance, fera, ferae naturae, feral, feral child, ferbam

Origin of fer-de-lance

1875–80; < French: literally, spearhead

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

Examples from the Web for fer-de-lance

He is as decent a chap as it has ever been my privilege to know, and as much to be avoided on certain occasions as a fer-de-lance.
A New Sensation|Albert Ross
But the Fer-de-lance, whose nearest home is in Guiana, is not likely to have come on board ship.
At Last|Charles Kingsley
There ees a man who ees to be keeled dead, and you let heem go—that ees more foolish as to let the Fer-de-lance free.
Plain Mary Smith|Henry Wallace Phillips
It may be the shortest route, indeed;—but then, the fer-de-lance!
Two Years in the French West Indies|Lafcadio Hearn

The fer-de-lance is a great destroyer of rats, this rodent forming its principal source of food.
Equatorial America|Maturin M. Ballou

British Dictionary definitions for fer-de-lance

fer-de-lance

/ (ˌfɛədəˈlɑːns) /

noun

a large highly venomous tropical American snake, Trimeresurus (or Bothops) atrox, with a greyish-brown mottled coloration: family Crotalidae (pit vipers)

Word Origin for fer-de-lance

C19: from French, literally: iron (head) of a lance

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