hellbender
Americannoun
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a large salamander, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis, of rivers and streams in eastern North America, having a flat, stout body and broad head.
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Informal. a reckless or headstrong person.
noun
Etymology
Origin of hellbender
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.
The practice of eating one’s own offspring, known as filial cannibalism, is common among species that, like the eastern hellbender, have evolved a parenting system in which fathers provide the bulk of early care.
From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2023
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources confirmed 3,500 dead fish in waterways as well as deceased hellbender salamanders, an endangered species in the state.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2023
Mueller and her colleagues used high-throughput sequencing to analyze hundreds of thousands of random DNA snippets from six species of plethodontid salamanders, as well as another species called hellbender.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 2, 2022
For his hellbender eDNA surveys, Spear used the two3 — a smartphone-based portable qPCR machine from Biomeme in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From Nature ● Jun. 24, 2019
Most salamanders are tiny, only an inch or two long, but the rare and startlingly ugly hellbender salamander can attain lengths of over two feet.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
