Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several tropical American pit vipers of the genus Bothrops, typically having brown and grayish markings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The lanceheaded or yellow viper, Craspedocephalus (or Bothrops)lanceolatus, of the family Crotalidæ, a large and very venomous serpent of the warm parts of America.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A large, venomous serpent (Trigonocephalus lanceolatus) of Brazil and the West Indies. It is allied to the rattlesnake, but has no rattle.

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

  • noun Bothrops lanceolatus or other lancehead snakes of genus Bothrops.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun large extremely venomous pit viper of Central America and South America

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from fer de lance, spearhead : fer, iron + de, of + lance, spear.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, the iron of a lance, spearhead.

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Examples

  • Yet it wasn't until Bill and I brought home the fer-de-lance in a mayonnaise jar that Mama laid down an absolute law about no contact with Brazilian wildlife of any sort.

    BRASIL AS A GIRL Maggie Jochild 2007

  • The more ferocious snakes here include fer-de-lance Bothrops asper, coral snake Micrurus spp., boa constrictor Boa constrictor, palm pit-viper Bothriechis spp. and bushmaster Lachesis muta.

    Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

  • The more ferocious snakes that occur here include fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), coral snakes (Micrurus spp.), boa constrictors (Boa constrictor), and bushmasters (Lachesis muta).

    Tepuis 2008

  • The snakes include the anaconda Eunectes murinus, fer-de-lance Bothrops asper, palm pit-vipers Bothriechis spp., coral snakes Micrurus spp., the bushmaster Lachesis muta and boa constrictor Boa constrictor.

    Central Amazonian Conservation Complex, Brazil 2008

  • Her amazing tolerance for pain and resistance to poison came from an incident in her childhood in Cuba when she was bitten by a fer-de-lance, the most poisonous snake in the hemisphere.

    The Secret Life of Houdini William Kalush 2006

  • It was a full moon that night which added to the drama of walking along in a mostly black jungle where we had just been told about poisonous fer-de-lance snakes that stalk their prey, not to mention the jaguars and ocelots.... which we would be lucky to see in the first place!

    Archive 2006-12-01 Field Notes 2006

  • It was a full moon that night which added to the drama of walking along in a mostly black jungle where we had just been told about poisonous fer-de-lance snakes that stalk their prey, not to mention the jaguars and ocelots.... which we would be lucky to see in the first place!

    Belize Navidad Field Notes 2006

  • Her amazing tolerance for pain and resistance to poison came from an incident in her childhood in Cuba when she was bitten by a fer-de-lance, the most poisonous snake in the hemisphere.

    The Secret Life of Houdini William Kalush 2006

  • Don, a hardcore nature enthusiast, was excited to see the extremely large barba amarilla snake, or fer-de-lance, "found" by Juan Carlos Meléndez that the Guacamaya Research Station preserved for us.

    Interactive Dig Waka' - Session 4 2003

  • At that hour of the afternoon, this was the favored territory of the fer-de-lance, a pit viper that made his skin crawl.

    A Sweet Scent of Death Guillermo Arriaga 2002

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