Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A highly poisonous vegetable alkaloid discovered in the plant Delphinium Staphisagria.
  • Pertaining to or having the characters of the Delphininæ.
  • noun A species of Delphininæ.

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

  • noun (Chem.) A poisonous alkaloid extracted from the stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria), as a colorless amorphous powder.

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

  • noun organic chemistry A type of toxic alkaloid found in some plants in the Delphinium family, which can also be used medicinally.
  • adjective Characteristic of dolphins

Etymologies

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Examples

  • 1921-1964 OsW Marine beasties supply ten animalines: cyprine carp 1828 O octopine octopus 1914 delphine dolphin 1828 OsW OW ostracine oyster 1890 delphinine dolphin O OW homarine lobster 1880 phocaenine porpoise OW 1890 OW manatine manatee OW phocine seal 1846 OW megapterine hump - back whale W Finally, beasts of the mind occupy the last three places in my extended corpus: basilicine basilisk 1855 sphinxine sphinx 1845

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 1 1977

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