| 释义 |
ˈpuff-adder
[a. S. Afr. Du. pof-adder: see puff v.]
1. A large and very venomous African viper (Bitis or Clotho arietans), which puffs out or inflates the upper part of its body when excited.
1789W. Paterson Narr. Four Journeys Country of Hottentots 164 The Puff Adder..has its name from blowing itself up to near a foot in circumference. 1824W. J. Burchell Trav. I. 469 It is well known in the colony by the name of the Pof-Adder (Puff Adder). Its venom is said to be most fatal. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. viii. 279 The puff-adder..is a heavy..sluggish animal, very thick in proportion to its length. 1871Kingsley At Last ii, But who will call the Puff Adder of the Cape..anything but ugly and horrible? 1896List Anim. Zool. Soc. 643 Bitis arietans, Puff Adder. Hab. Africa and Arabia. 1915Chambers's Jrnl. July 437/1 Perhaps the most loathsome of the snakes of Natal is the dreaded puff-adder. 1969Times 15 Sept. (Uganda Suppl.) p. vi/8 Puff adders were sacred at Budo, so only Europeans could kill them. 1975H. B. Cott Looking at Animals viii. 160 The difficulty is met by the application of patterns, such as those exhibited by African Rock Python, Gaboon Viper, Puff Adder.
2. U.S. The western hog-nosed snake, Heterodon nasicus, which belongs to the family Colubridæ but is not dangerous to man.
1882Amer. Naturalist XVI. 566 Twice afterward I noticed this strange habit of the puff adders. 1897–8‘Mark Twain’ Autobiogr. (1924) I. 103 Snakes..liked to lie in it [sc. a road] and sun themselves; when they were rattlesnakes or puff-adders, we killed them. 1966R. C. Stebbins Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians x. 145 When disturbed it [sc. the western hog-nose snake] often spreads its head and neck and strikes with open mouth, hissing, but seldom biting. This behaviour has earned it the names ‘puff adder’, ‘blow viper’, and ‘hissing adder’. |