Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sea god who could change his shape at will.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In bacteriology, an untenable generic name applied by some authors to certain bacteria, especially Bacillus vulgaris and other closely related putrefactive species.
- noun In classical mythology, a sea-god, the son of Oceanus and Tethys, who had the power of assuming different shapes.
- noun [NL.] A genus of tailed amphibians, typical of the family Proteidæ, established by Laurenti in 1768.
- noun [NL.] In Protozoa, a genus of animalcules, based as such by O. F. Müller in 1786 upon the proteus or protean animalcule of earlier writers, as Rösel, 1755.
- noun [lowercase] An animalcule of the genus Proteus (or Amœba); an amœba.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Class. Myth.) A sea god in the service of Neptune who assumed different shapes at will. Hence, one who easily changes his appearance or principles.
- noun A genus of aquatic eel-shaped amphibians found in caves in Austria. They have permanent external gills as well as lungs. The eyes are small and the legs are weak.
- noun A changeable protozoan; an amœba.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A taxonomic
genus within thefamily Enterobacteriaceae — severalbacteria responsible for humanurinary tract infections. - proper noun A taxonomic
genus within thefamily Proteidae — theolm . - proper noun Greek mythology A
sea god who could change his shape at will. - proper noun astronomy The sixth
satellite of theplanet Neptune
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (Greek mythology) a prophetic god who served Poseidon; was capable of changing his shape at will
- noun type genus of the Proteidae
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Proteus.
Examples
-
When she went to that lady with the ring, she was most glad to find that Silvia utterly rejected the suit of Proteus; and Julia, or the page Sebastian as she was called, entered into conversation with Silvia about Proteus first love, the forsaken lady Julia.
-
She first made out these words, Love-wounded Proteus; and lamenting over these and such like loving words, which she made out though they were all torn asunder, or, she said wounded (the expression Love-wounded Proteus giving her that idea), she talked to these kind words, telling them she would lodge them in her bosom as in a bed, till their wounds were healed, and that she would kiss each several piece, to make amends.
-
The term Proteus phenomenon has been coined to describe this phenomenon of rapidly alternating extreme research claims and extremely opposite refutations
HAnsen and Schmidt: Predicting the Past – Continued « Climate Audit 2006
-
The term Proteus phenomenon has been coined to describe this phenomenon of rapidly alternating extreme research claims and extremely opposite refutations [
-
The Proteus Effect These researchers are tapping into what is called the Proteus effect, behavioral alterations in the real world that are triggered by changes in how our bodies appear to us in a virtual world.
Meet 'Future You.' Like What You See? Jason Zweig 2011
-
Surgeon Pavy's angry protests compelled the sending back in the "Proteus" -- paralleling the sending back of Coleburne in the pink -- of one member of the company; and Lieutenant
Henry Hudson A Brief Statement of His Aims and His Achievements 1881
-
The Proteus is the largest of a fleet of WAM-Vs Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel that MAR has designed.
Line Rider, internet craze, coming to Nintendo DS & Wii 2007
-
The "diplomat" was a vombis, or what in those same myths Simon had been thinking of earlier was called a Proteus: a creature which could imitate perfectly almost any life-fonn within its size range.
Anywhen Blish, James 1970
-
The Proteus was a shrinking dot now, smaller, smaller, down to the barest edge of sight.
Fantastic Voyage Asimov, Isaac, 1920- 1966
-
Then, seeing that he could not make us loose our hold, the Ancient One of the Sea, who was called Proteus, ceased in his changes and became as we had seen him first.
The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy Padraic Colum 1926
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.