hamadryad
Americannoun
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hamadryads,
plural
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hamadryades
plural
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Classical Mythology. a dryad who is the spirit of a particular tree.
noun
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classical myth one of a class of nymphs, each of which inhabits a tree and dies with it
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another name for king cobra
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hamadryad
< Latin, stem of Hamādryas wood nymph < Greek, equivalent to hama together with (cognate with same ) + dryás dryad
Vocabulary lists containing hamadryad
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.
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“A hamadryad is a wood-nymph, also a poisonous snake in India, and an Abyssinian baboon,” Hermes points out.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2010
If the gentle hamadryad which, for aught I know, still dwelleth in every living tree, saw this gross affront, there were utterances which were nigh unto cursing.
From A Breeze from the Woods, 2nd Ed. by William Chauncey Bartlett
"A barb steeped in the venom of a hamadryad went in there!"
From The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
The bark opened not; the hamadryad had lost the spell.
From Audrey by Mary Johnston
One afternoon, while she was out at tea with some friends, the Malay gardener brought to the house the carcass of a hamadryad which he had killed in the garden.
From Where the Strange Trails Go Down Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China by E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell
This story is based upon the old mythical belief that the trees are inhabited by guardian deities known as dryads, or hamadryads.
From Children's Literature A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes by Erle Elsworth Clippinger
At first Jurgen could not believe her, but presently Jurgen was convinced, through at least two of his senses, that what Chloris told him was true about hamadryads.
From Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell
The ladies and gentlemen had been transformed, therefore, into gods and goddesses, nymphs, and hamadryads, fauns, satyrs, and wood-spirits.
From Frederick the Great and His Family by Mrs. Chapman Coleman
In entire consistence with botany, geology, science, or what not, he endues his very seas and woods with passion, more than the old hamadryads or tritons.
From The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton by John Burroughs
In the shadowed spots fauns and hamadryads wooed, unconscious of the gaze of mortal eyes.
From The Four Million by O. Henry
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.
