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A translucent variety of serpentine, of a honey yellow or greenish yellow color, having a waxy resinlike luster.

A kind of openwork edging made of serpentine braid.

, the people atood round him; to go round the city; to wind a cable round a windlass. The serpent Error twines round human hearts. Cowper. Round about, an emphatic form for round or about. "Moses . . . set them [The elders] round about the tabernacle." Num. xi. 24. -- To come round, to gain the consent of, or circumve…

To creep, as serpents.

te of magnesia and aluminia. It occurs in soft, soapy, amorphous masses, filling veins in serpentine and cavities in trap rock.

confused contest; a tumultuous struggle for superiority; a fight. The dog leaps upon the serpent, and tears it to pieces; but in the scuffle the cradle happened to be overturned. L'Estrange.

emble pens stuck behind the ear.] (Zoöl.) A large long-legged raptorial bird (Gypogeranus serpentarius), native of South Africa, but now naturalized in the West Indies and some other tropical countries. It has a powerful hooked beak, a crest of long feathers, and a long tail. It feeds upon reptiles of various kinds, an…

A constellation represented as a serpent held by Serpentarius.

, as a natural covering of hair, feathers, shell; to cast; as, fowls shed their feathers; serpents shed their skins; trees shed leaves.

The hard covering of an egg. Think him as a serpent's egg, . . . And kill him in the shell. Shak.

Bending in and out; of a serpentine or undulating form; winding; crooked. -- Sin"u*ous*ly, adv. Streaking the ground with sinuous trace. Milton. Gardens bright with sinuous rills. Coleridge.

; to sneak. "To slink away and hide." Tale of Beryn. Back to the thicket slunk The guilty serpent. Milton. There were some few who slank obliquely from them as they passed. Landor.

The skin, commonly the cast-off skin, of a serpent or of some similar animal.

ape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; -- in a good sense. Be ye sly as serpents, and simple as doves. Wyclif (Matt. x. 16). Whom graver age And long experience hath made wise and sly. Fairfax.

Any species of the order Ophidia; an ophidian; a serpent, whether harmless or venomous. See Ophidia, and Serpent.

nt (Hermodactylus tuberosus) of the Mediterranean region. The flowers slightly resemble a serpent's open mouth.

st of which are (or were formerly) reputed to be efficacious as remedies for the bites of serpents; also, the roots of any of these.

colubrina) having a bitter taste, and supposed to be a remedy for the bite of the hooded serpent.

Of or pertaining to a snake or snakes; resembling a snake; serpentine; winding. The red light playing upon its gilt and carving gave it an appearance of snaky life. L. Wallace.

der Snap. -- Snapping turtle. (Zoöl.) (a) A large and voracious aquatic turtle (Chelydra serpentina) common in the fresh waters of the United States; -- so called from its habit of seizing its prey by a snap of its jaws. Called also mud turtle. (b) See Alligator snapper, under Alligator.