fer-de-lance

American  

[fer-dl-ans, -ahns] / ˌfɛr dlˈæns, -ˈɑns /

noun

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

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fer-de-lance British  

/ ˌfɛədəˈlɑːns /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of fer-de-lance

1875–80; < French: literally, spearhead

Example Sentences

Unless it is a fer-de-lance, or bothrops asper, a nasty pit viper found in Central and South America.

From The Guardian • Jun. 10, 2019

Plentiful, horrifying details are supplied, occasionally to comic effect: “Hey, guys,” moans Mumy, conveying Preston’s dismay as his flashlight illuminates a six-foot, head-swaying fer-de-lance, “there’s a giant snake here.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 22, 2017

One of the deadliest snakes in Mexico, a tawny fer-de-lance, was slithering by his head, 30 centimeters away.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 23, 2016

On St. Lucia, Bill Hundley, 23, carries a kit containing an antidote against the deadly bite of the fer-de-lance snake when he goes out in the high grass to lay drainage ditches for banana plantations.

From Time Magazine Archive

Meantime the patient is given all sorts of absurd things to drink, in tafia and sour-orange juice—such as old clay pipes ground to powder, or the head of the fer-de-lance itself, roasted dry and pounded….

From Two Years in the French West Indies by Hearn, Lafcadio