Definition of "nymph" []

• Greek & Roman Mythology Any of numerous minor deities represented as beautiful maidens inhabiting and sometimes personifying features of nature such as trees, waters, and mountains. (noun)
• A girl, especially a beautiful one. (noun)
• The larval form of certain insects, such as silverfish and grasshoppers, usually resembling the adult form but smaller and lacking fully developed wings. Also called nympha. (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.

• "The term nymphæ was first applied in the modern sense, according to Bergh, in 1599, by Pinæus, mainly from the influence of these structures on the urinary stream, and he dilated in his _De Virginitate_ on the suitability of the term to designate so poetic"
• "Oh, to be a mangrove nymph is to be of both worlds and neither; oh, how I wished I had been born an ash or yew, oak or maple, and not to suffer these longings!"
• "As he carefully selects a nymph from the rim of his hat, he listens to the stream rushing by him, calling him to wade through her waters and cast his line."