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A fabled serpent with a head at each end, moving either way. Milton.

A genus of amphibians, inhabiting the Southern United States, having a serpentlike form, but with four minute limbs and two persistent gill openings; the Congo snake.

rivers, and preys on birds and small mammals. The name is also applied to a similar large serpent (Python tigris) of Ceylon.

Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a snake or serpent. "The anguine or snakelike reptiles." Owen.

lly of a white, gray, or green-gray color. The name is also given to a similar variety of serpentine.

A small, hooded, poisonous serpent of Egypt and adjacent countries, whose bite is often fatal. It is the Naja haje. The name is also applied to other poisonous serpents, esp. to Vipera aspis of southern Europe. See Haje.

ies, containing some fluid or other substance; as, the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents; the bag of a cow.

A fabulous serpent, or dragon. The ancients alleged that its hissing would drive away all other serpents, and that its breath, and even its look, was fatal. See Cockatrice. Make me not sighted like the basilisk. Shak.

guile, artifice, or craft; to deceive or impose on, as by a false statement; to lure. The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Gen. iii. 13.

To have in sight; to see clearly; to look at; to regard with the eyes. When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Num. xxi. 9. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John. i. 29.

In the highest degree; beyond all others. "Thou serpent! That name best befits thee." Milton. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small. Coleridge.

Having two heads; bicipital. "Bicipitous serpents." Sir T. Browne.

h; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing. At the last it [wine] biteth like serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Prov. xxiii. 32.

A genus of large American serpents, including the boa constrictor, the emperor boa of Mexico (B. imperator), and the chevalier boa of Peru (B. eques).

A large and powerful serpent of tropical America, sometimes twenty or thirty feet long. See Illustration in Appendix.

A large American serpent, so called from the sound it makes.

A flexure; a bend; a twist; a turn; a coil, as in a rope; as the boughts of a serpent. [Obs.] Spenser. The boughts of the fore legs. Sir T. Browne.

A hard, compact variety of serpentine found in Rhode Island. It is of a light green color and resembles jade.

iginally said to be a herald's staff of olive wood, but was afterwards fabled to have two serpents coiled about it, and two wings at the top.

Of or pertaining to the head. [Obs.] Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain. Milton.