serpent [ sur -puh nt ] SHOW IPA
/ ˈsɜr pənt / PHONETIC RESPELLING
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
Examples from the Web for serpent 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.
They were represented sometimes under the form of a serpent , sometimes as a child or a youth.
The serpent fixed itself in a tree by the water-side; and underneath the same tree the young crocodile watched for prey.
Quecholli means 'peacock,' but the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis calls it the 'serpent of the clouds.'
Even cabinet officers did not escape suspicion, for the trail of the serpent led straight to the door of one of them.
No wife in this parish is so poor as I; powerless in the folds of a serpent .
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British Dictionary definitions for 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
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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).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Culture definitions for serpent The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
