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Definition of "cerastes" []

  • Any of several venomous snakes of the genus Cerastes, such as the horned viper, having hornlike projections over each eye. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cerastes" in a sentence
  • "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 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."
  • "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."
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