hamadryad

American  

[ham-uh-drahy-uhd, -ad] / ˌhæm əˈdraɪ əd, -æd /

noun

plural

hamadryads, hamadryades

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

2. king cobra.

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hamadryad British  

/ ˌhæməˈdraɪəd, -æd /

noun

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

2. another name for king cobra

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Etymology

Origin of hamadryad

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

Example Sentences

“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

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

The hamadryad, as you probably know, is perhaps the deadliest of all Eastern reptiles.

From Where the Strange Trails Go Down Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China by Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)

I am upon terms of some intimacy with a hamadryad just at present.

From Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by Cabell, James Branch

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