medusan

[ muh-doo-suhn, -zuhn, -dyoo- ]

adjective

1. pertaining to a medusa or jellyfish.

noun

1. a medusa or jellyfish.

Word History and Origins

Origin of medusan¹

First recorded in 1840–50; medus(a) + -an

Example Sentences

Gabrielle remained so long in apparent torpor, while the Medusan horror on her face permanently hardened there, that the enemy waxed impatient.

From Project Gutenberg

At Castle-balls they had looked with Medusan gaze right through each other; for the compact was there--no less binding that it was unwritten--that the mistress and the wife should never speak, save on the subject of that secret.

From Project Gutenberg

He cast her as a full-blown Medusan charmer, snakes twisting in her hair, and himself as the weakened magician under her spell, in The Beguiling of Merlin, 1873-74--King Arthur's court sorcerer reduced to hollow-eyed impotence by a magic fiercer than his own.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wherever tyranny shall lift its Medusan head, wherever treason shall plot its hellish schemes, wherever disunion shall unfurl its tattered ensign, there, oh there, sow them in the hearts of patriots and republicans!

From Project Gutenberg

On either hand hung the little Flora's great-grandmother-in-law, and her great-grandfather accordingly, Mrs. Mehitable and Parson Job Hyde, peering out, one from a bushy ornament of pink laurel-blossoms, and the other from an airy and delicate garland of the wanton sweet-pea, each stony pair of eyes seeming to glare with Medusan intent at this profaning of their state and dignity.

From Project Gutenberg