The Collaborative International Dictionary
Medusa \Me*du"sa\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?.]
(Class. Myth.) The Gorgon; or one of the Gorgons whose hair was changed into serpents, after which all who looked upon her were turned into stone.
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[pl. Medusae.] (Zo["o]l.) Any free swimming acaleph; a jellyfish. Note: The larger medus[ae] belong to the Discophora, and are sometimes called covered-eyed medus[ae]; others, known as naked-eyed medus[ae], belong to the Hydroidea, and are usually developed by budding from hydroids. See Discophora, Hydroidea, and Hydromedusa. Medusa bud (Zo["o]l.), one of the buds of a hydroid, destined to develop into a gonophore or medusa. See Athecata, and Gonotheca. Medusa's head.
(Zo["o]l.) An astrophyton.
(Astron.) A cluster of stars in the constellation Perseus. It contains the bright star Algol.
WordNet
n. African dwarf succulent perennial shrub with numerous slender drooping branches [syn: Euphorbia medusae, Euphorbia caput-medusae]
weedy rye grass having long bristling awns [syn: Elymus caput-medusae]
Wikipedia
"Medusa's Head" (Das Medusenhaupt, 1922), by Sigmund Freud, is a very short, posthumously published essay on the subject of the Medusa Myth.
Equating decapitation with castration, Freud maintained that the terror of Medusa was a reflection of the castration complex aroused in the young boy when the sight of the female genitals brought home the truth that females have no penis.
Usage examples of "medusa's head".
For one thing, I thought Seriphean Dictys would be pleased to see it again, so I'd kept in it all my souvenirs: a piece of the net he'd fished us ashore with, the crescent scabbard of Hermes's sickle, couple of rocks from giant Atlas after I'd stoned him, fern-corals from Joppa (I'd laid Medusa's head on seaweed while I skewered Cetus), Andromeda's leg-irons, the Larissan discus, and the letters.
Suspended from that distant ceiling hung a familiar shape: a medusa's head of tubes, wires, and tentacles, all grossly enlarged.
Hari ordered a holoview showing Orion Station just ahead, a giant Medusa's head of tubes and spires that sat in the middle of a straight, shimmering line-the space-elevator cable.
Along the port bulkhead were peripheral screens, tech stations, and banks of sophisticated instrumentality, with a great Medusa's head of cables, feeders, and power relays running floor to ceiling.
A Medusa's head of tangled lightning bolts ripped across the sky, splitting off and plunging toward the planet below.
He had tied back his long greying hair with a strip Of Cloth, and from his scarred fist the lashes of the cat hung to the planks of the deck like the serpents of Medusa's head.
A snake pulled out of Medusa's head, groomed for a mythical title.
Then he cut off Medusa's head with one stroke of the sickle, and from her bleeding neck sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor, father of the infamous Geryon.