viperine

American  

[vahy-per-in, -puh-rahyn] / ˈvaɪ pər ɪn, -pəˌraɪn /

adjective

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

   a gossip with a viperine tongue.

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Other Word Forms

• pseudoviperine
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of viperine

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

Example Sentences

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.

From On Snake-Poison: its Action and its Antidote by Mueller, A.

Here, among a number of viperine snakes of about the same size, is a snake that lives on eggs.

From The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 28, April 1893 An Illustrated Monthly by Newnes, George

By far the most numerous are three genera of viperine snakes, including the rattlesnakes and moccasins; all of these have a pit-like depression between the nose and eyes, and hence are called pit-vipers.

From Health on the Farm A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene by Harris, H. F. (Henry Fauntleroy)

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.

From On Snake-Poison: its Action and its Antidote by Mueller, A.

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

From Wings of the Wind by Harris, Credo Fitch