Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or resembling a snake.
  • adjective Colubrid.
  • adjective Of or relating to a colubrid snake of the subfamily Colubrinae, including the king snakes and rat snakes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to a snake or serpent; ophidian; specifically, of or pertaining to the Colubrina or Colubridæ. Also colubriform.
  • Cunning; crafty.
  • noun A colubrine serpent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) like or related to snakes of the genus Coluber.
  • adjective Like a snake; cunning; crafty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Snake-like, pertaining to snakes.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin colubrinus, from colubra ("snake") + -inus ("-ine").

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Examples

  • There are also: serpentine, colubrine (if it's a cobra-like snake, can't apply to a constricter, say, or a sidewinder ...), anguine.

    Breakfast in Bed desayunoencama 2005

  • Yet the old instinct which has made the name of Englishman glorious in the past was there, in the audience before him, and there was "immense cheering," relieved by some slight colubrine demonstrations.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864 Various

  • Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like the king-snake, was not immune to the colubrine poison.

    I. The Start 1914

  • But the vital difference is that between all these poisons of the pit-vipers and the poisons of the colubrine snakes, such as the cobra and the coral-snake.

    I. The Start 1914

  • Unlike the vipers, the colubrine poisonous snakes have small fangs, and their poison, though on the whole even more deadly, has entirely different effects, and owes its deadliness to entirely different qualities.

    I. The Start 1914

  • The doctor first put on the table a non-poisonous but very vicious and truculent colubrine snake.

    I. The Start 1914

  • As yet the doctor has not been able to develop an anti-venom serum which will neutralize the poison of these colubrine snakes.

    I. The Start 1914

  • It is immune to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine poison.

    I. The Start 1914

  • Most of the colubrine snakes are entirely harmless, and are the common snakes that we meet everywhere.

    I. The Start 1914

  • The bite of a cobra or other colubrine poisonous snake is more painful in its immediate effects than is the bite of one of the big vipers.

    I. The Start 1914

Comments

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  • Snaky, sneaky, cunning.

    May 16, 2008

  • We all crave a leader who’s leonine,

    An image that’s noble and fine,

    But something’s amiss

    With slither and hiss

    And leadership that’s colubrine.

    December 16, 2018

  • Mate I really don't think that's a rhyme;

    Were you perchance a bit pressed for time?

    But you had a ping

    At this snakey thing

    So at least I'll toss you a...quarter.

    December 17, 2018

  • Is your ear befuddled or mine?

    I’m pleased with the aural design.

    The internet voices

    Confirm my first choices,

    But maybe it’s different in Strine.

    December 17, 2018