hamadryad

[ ham-uh-drahy-uh d, -ad ]

/ ˌhæm əˈdraɪ əd, -æd /

noun, plural ham·a·dry·ads, ham·a·dry·a·des [ham-uh-drahy-uh-deez] /ˌhæm əˈdraɪ əˌdiz/.

Classical Mythology. a dryad who is the spirit of a particular tree.

king cobra.

Nearby words

Origin of hamadryad

< Latin, stem of Hamādryas wood nymph < Greek, equivalent to hama together with (cognate with same) + dryás dryad

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

Examples from the Web for hamadryad

Were you to tell me that you saw a hamadryad coming out of yon beech-tree, I should not contradict you because I could not see it.
Barbara Lynn|Emily J. Jenkinson
Science (or rather half-way science) scoffs at reminiscence of dryad and hamadryad, and of trees speaking.
Complete Prose Works|Walt Whitman
It is a place in which a poet might look for a glimpse of a Hamadryad.
Gryll Grange|Thomas Love Peacock
Why, you'll look like a hamadryad, all in these wood browns!
A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life.|Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

Hamadryad, a wood-nymph identified with a particular tree that was born with it and that died with it.
The Nuttall Encyclopaedia|Edited by Rev. James Wood

British Dictionary definitions for hamadryad

hamadryad

/ (ˌhæməˈdraɪəd, -æd) /

noun

classical myth one of a class of nymphs, each of which inhabits a tree and dies with it

another name for king cobra

Word Origin for hamadryad

C14: from Latin Hamādryas, from Greek Hamadruas, from hama together with + drus tree; see dryad

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

Word Origin and History for hamadryad

hamadryad

late 14c., from Greek hamadryas (plural hamadryades) "wood-nymph," fabled to die with her tree, from hama "together" (see same) + drus (genitive dryos) "tree."