| 释义 |
ˈviper-like, adv. and a.
[f. viper.]
A. adv. In or after the manner of a viper. Only in allusive use (see viper 3).
1630Drayton Muses Eliz. x. 117 This cruell kinde thus Viper-like deuoure That fruitfull soyle which them too fully fed. 1646J. Hall Poems i. 43 Had not thy mother born thee toothlesse thou Hadst eaten Viper-like a passage through. 1677A. Horneck Gt. Law Consid. iv. (1704) 141 If Absalom had not had a kingdom in his eye, he would hardly have,..viperlike, preyed upon the bowels that did feed him. a1700Dryden P.S. to Hist. League Wks. 1821 XVII. 162 The government in which they live, and which, viper-like, they would devour. 1729Madden Themistocles iv. i. (ed. 3) 44 Can I live By Athens' Ruin, working out my Way Into the World, most Viper-like, by gnawing E'en thro' my Mother's Bowels? 1771Kelly Clementina iii. i, They'll else blast all the comforts of your life, And, viper-like, with death return your fondness. 1897Flandrau Harvard Episodes 277 He couldn't bring himself at that late day to arise, viper like, from the hearthstone and smite.
B. adj. Like or resembling a viper.
1888Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 247 The genus Echis consists of but one species (E. carinata)... It is a viper-like snake. 1903Westm. Gaz. 3 Mar. 2/1 The noise of the little brass viper-like being in the corner as it whirred and hissed and snapped its teeth. |