Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Either of two venomous snakes of the genus Cerastes that have a hornlike projection over each eye, including the horned viper.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Some horned viper.
- noun A genus of very venomous African and Indian serpents, the horned vipers, of the suborder Solenoglypha and family Viperidæ, having a horn over each eye, and the tail distinct from the body. C. vipera or hasselquisti is the horned viper of northern Africa, a species known to the ancients.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A genus of poisonous African serpents, with a horny scale over each eye; the horned viper.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun highly venomous viper of northern Africa and southwestern Asia having a horny spine above each eye
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Dictionary under the word cerastes; and every time that we write one of these letters we are making a faded copy of the old picture.
The Booklover and His Books Harry Lyman Koopman 1898
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The cerastes is a snake with horns like a ram's on its head; from this it gets its name, for the Greeks call horns kerata.
Archive 2008-06-01 2008
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The cerastes is a snake with horns like a ram's on its head; from this it gets its name, for the Greeks call horns kerata.
Sigh. WMAM. 2008
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At the halting-place a "cerastes" (Echis carinata, Merr.), so called from the warty hollows over the eyes (?), was brought to me in a water-bag; the bearer transferred it to the spirit-bottle by neatly thrusting a packing-needle through the head.
The Land of Midian — Volume 2 Richard Francis Burton 1855
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The herpetofauna includes black-necked spitting cobra Naja nigricollis, African puff adder Bitis arietans, west African sand boa Eryx muelleri, sand viper Cerastes cerastes, desert monitor lizard Varanus griseus and various species of gecko.
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Today, the cerastes survives as a genus of small, venomous vipers, like this crazy-ass Sidewinder Desert Viper, AKA the crotalus cerastes.
Archive 2008-06-01 2008
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Colubri enim et cerasti nomine diabolus uel antichristus significatur ut est illud quod Iacob patriarcha de Dan filio sua prophetauit dicens: Fiat Dan coluber in uia et cerastes in semita mordet ungulas equi et cadet ascensat eius retro.
Archive 2008-06-01 2008
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Non solum enim coluber antichristus set etiam cerastes uocatur.
Archive 2008-06-01 2008
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Common reptiles in the ecoregion include the horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) and desert varan (Varanus griseus).
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Indigenous reptiles include grey monitor lizard Varanus griseus, spiny-tailed lizard, Uromastix thomasi, venomous horned viper Cerastes cerastes and carpet viper Echis coloratus, hooded malpolon Malpolon moilensis, sandsnake Psammophis schokari and cat snake Telescopus dhara.
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