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
"Dear me, though; but that is investing the hamadryad with novel and terrible functions," exclaimed Dr. Middleton.
From The Egoist by Meredith, George
The bark opened not; the hamadryad had lost the spell.
From Audrey by Johnston, Mary
"Why, you'll look like a hamadryad, all in these wood browns!"
From A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life. by Whitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
He tried to reconstruct from the victim of three-and-sixty years the pink-slippered hamadryad who had haunted him all his life.
From The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 by Hughes, Rupert
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.
