serpent
- a snake.
- a wily, treacherous, or malicious person.
- the Devil; Satan. Gen. 3:1–5.
- a firework that burns with serpentine motion or flame.
- an obsolete wooden wind instrument with a serpentine shape and a deep, coarse tone.Compare ophicleide.
- (initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Serpens.
Origin of serpent
Examples from the Web for serpent
Contemporary Examples
In fact I wanted to call the novel “Sex with the Serpent Girl” but was overruled.
We are on the last leg of the walk, and beginning to lose hope of a serpent score.
Isbell's book is titled The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent: Why We See So Well.
Historical Examples
I think you'd better get rid of that Shandy serpent; he seems ripe for any deviltry.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
In moving I had trodden on or touched the serpent with my foot, and it had bitten me just above the ankle.
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
Cursed be the serpent that bit you and had not sufficient power in its venom to kill!
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. IFrancis Augustus Cox
Had she produced a serpent, I could not have been more frightened.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
serpent
- a literary or dialect word for snake
- Old Testament a manifestation of Satan as a guileful tempter (Genesis 3:1–5)
- a sly, deceitful, or unscrupulous person
- an obsolete wind instrument resembling a snake in shape, the bass form of the cornett
- a firework that moves about with a serpentine motion when ignited
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for serpent
n.
c.1300, "limbless reptile," also the tempter in Gen. iii:1-5, from Old French serpent, sarpent "snake, serpent" (12c.), from Latin serpentem (nominative serpens) "snake; creeping thing," also the name of a constellation, from present participle of serpere "to creep," from PIE *serp- "to crawl, creep" (cf. Sanskrit sarpati "creeps," sarpah "serpent;" Greek herpein "to creep," herpeton "serpent;" Albanian garper "serpent").
Used figuratively to express spiral or regularly sinuous, e.g. as the word for a type of musical instrument (1730). Serpent's tongue as figurative of venomous or stinging speech is from mistaken medieval notion that the serpent's tongue was its "sting." Serpent's tongue also was a name given to fossil shark's teeth (c.1600).
serpent
The creature in the Book of Genesis that tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, thus committing the first act of the Fall of Man. In the New Testament, the serpent of Genesis is identified with Satan.