viperine

[vahy-per-in, -puh-rahyn]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resembling a viper; venomous.

   a gossip with a viperine tongue.

Other Word Forms

• pseudoviperine adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of viperine¹

From the Latin word vīperīnus, dating back to 1540–50. See viper, -ine ¹

Example Sentences

From his hiding-place Gyges fancied that he saw those locks slowly becoming suffused with tawny tints, illuminated with reflections of blood and flame; and their heavy curls seemed to lengthen with viperine undulations, like the hair of the Gorgons and Medusas.

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Oh that viperine eye of his, shaded by flaccid lids, that smile twisted awry by all his secret vices, his utter hypocrisy, morbid brutality, added to cold ferocity, and overweening arrogance which in itself is enough to provoke a horsewhip to lash him of its own accord.

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This leads the writer on to the discussion of this singular hæmorrhagic process principally characteristic of viperine poisoning, and only very exceptionally produced by the poison of colubrines.

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Feoktistow's experiments, made with viper poison, fully bear out the correctness of the writer's theory, besides proving that there is no essential difference between the action of the viperine and colubrine poisons.

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Like other viperine bites, however, it so affects the surrounding flesh that blood poisoning may follow days after the first crisis has been passed.

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