hamadryad
Americannoun
plural
hamadryads, hamadryades-
Classical Mythology. a dryad who is the spirit of a particular tree.
noun
-
classical myth one of a class of nymphs, each of which inhabits a tree and dies with it
-
another name for king cobra
Etymology
Origin of hamadryad
< Latin, stem of Hamādryas wood nymph < Greek, equivalent to hama together with (cognate with same ) + dryás dryad
Vocabulary lists containing hamadryad
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“A hamadryad is a wood-nymph, also a poisonous snake in India, and an Abyssinian baboon,” Hermes points out.
From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2010
I love trees as if I were suckled by a hamadryad.
From Romantic Spain A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. I) by O'Shea, John Augustus
The poet's hamadryad and naiad, what are they, indeed, but cobwebby fictions, which must be brushed away if ideal truth is to be revealed?
From The Poet's Poet : essays on the character and mission of the poet as interpreted in English verse of the last one hundred and fifty years by Atkins, Elizabeth
Shall three moons wane, And yet not found?—Ah, surely it was pain Of old, for mortal youth his heart to lend To any hamadryad!
From Ride to the Lady And Other Poems by Cone, Helen Gray
These include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes.
From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
