serpent

[sur-puh nt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR serpent ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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

1250–1300; Middle English (< Middle French) < Latin serpent-, stem of serpēns; see Serpens

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

Related Words for serpent

snake, viper, basilisk, dragon, ophidian

Examples from the Web for serpent

Contemporary Examples of serpent

In fact I wanted to call the novel “Sex with the Serpent Girl” but was overruled.
The Most Underrated Novels I’ve Edited
Daniel Menaker
November 19, 2013
We are on the last leg of the walk, and beginning to lose hope of a serpent score.
How to Catch a Giant Python
Catharine Skipp
February 28, 2010
Isbell's book is titled The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent: Why We See So Well.
The Best of Brit Lit
Peter Stothard
October 8, 2009

Historical Examples of serpent

I think you'd better get rid of that Shandy serpent; he seems ripe for any deviltry.
Thoroughbreds
W. 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 Mansions
W. H. Hudson
Cursed be the serpent that bit you and had not sufficient power in its venom to kill!
Green Mansions
W. H. Hudson
And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I
Francis Augustus Cox
Had she produced a serpent, I could not have been more frightened.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson

British Dictionary definitions for serpent

serpent

noun

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 for serpent

C14: via Old French from Latin serpēns a creeping thing, from serpere to creep; related to Greek herpein to crawl

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 serpent

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 in Culture

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.