Definition of "nereid" [nereid]

• One of 50 sea nymphs who were attendants upon Poseidon (Neptune), and were represented as riding on sea horses, sometimes in human form and sometimes with the tail of a fish. (noun)
• A worm of the genus Nereis, having sharp retractable jaws and an annelid body. (noun)

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• "Tam Lin, Introduction: the nereid cried out, ‘Let go my child, dog!’"
• "A Cretan ballad, taken down about 1820-30, relates that a young peasant, falling in love with a nereid, was advised by an old woman to seize his beloved by the hair just before cock-crow, and hold her fast, whatever transformation she might undergo."
• "A modern Greek tale narrates that a nereid, enamoured of a youth, and by him scorned, turned him into a snake till he should find another love as fair as she."