hamadryad
Americannoun
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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
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.
“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
Shall three moons wane, And yet not found?—Ah, surely it was pain Of old, for mortal youth his heart to lend To any hamadryad!
From Ride to the Lady And Other Poems by Cone, Helen Gray
In the pale, elusive moonlight, and with that startled poise of figure, she might well have been the hamadryad at bay of one of her most famous dances.
From The Lamp of Fate by Pedler, Margaret
The "genius loci," the "dryad" or "hamadryad," is the counterpart of the cherubim guarding the ark and the mercyseat of the Jewish temple.
From Ancient Faiths And Modern A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities by Inman, Thomas
The girl was eighteen; her name was Estelle, and he called her "the hamadryad of St. Eynard."
From The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 by Hughes, Rupert
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.
