Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating to the snakes of the genus Elaps and their relatives, usually considered as forming the family Elapidæ.
  • noun A poisonous constituent of snake-poison.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Like or pertaining to the Elapidæ, a family of poisonous serpents, including the cobras. See ophidia.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to the Elapidae, a taxonomic group including cobras.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres, but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the rattlesnake’s victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine snake—that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines—becomes watery and incapable of coagulation.

    I. The Start 1914

  • The venom is related to snake poison, but is neither crotaline nor elapine.

    The Poison Bugaboo 1910

  • Mention should be made of the fact that there are at least six harmless reptiles that resemble the coral-snakes very closely, and as a consequence of the former being mistaken for the latter, the assertion has been frequently made by the ignorant that our elapine serpents are harmless.

    Health on the Farm A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene 1896

  • There is a greater effect on the nerve-centres, but less swelling of the wound itself, and, whereas the blood of the rattlesnake's victim coagulates, the blood of the victim of an elapine snake -- that is, of one of the only poisonous American colubrines -- becomes watery and incapable of coagulation.

    Through the Brazilian Wilderness Theodore Roosevelt 1888

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