The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plume \Plume\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plumed; p. pr. & vb. n. Pluming.] [Cf. F. plumer to pluck, to strip, L. plumare to cover with feathers.]
-
To pick and adjust the plumes or feathers of; to dress or prink.
Pluming her wings among the breezy bowers.
--W. Irving. To strip of feathers; to pluck; to strip; to pillage; also, to peel. [Obs.]
--Bacon. Dryden.To adorn with feathers or plumes. ``Farewell the plumed troop.''
--Shak.-
To pride; to vaunt; to boast; -- used reflexively; as, he plumes himself on his skill.
--South.Plumed adder (Zo["o]l.), an African viper ( Vipera cornuta, syn. Clotho cornuta), having a plumelike structure over each eye. It is venomous, and is related to the African puff adder. Called also horned viper and hornsman.
Plumed partridge (Zo["o]l.), the California mountain quail ( Oreortyx pictus). See Mountain quail, under Mountain.
WordNet
n. highly venomous viper of northern Africa and southwestern Asia having a horny spine above each eye [syn: cerastes, sand viper, horned asp, Cerastes cornutus]
Wikipedia
Horned viper may refer to:
- Cerastes (genus), North African desert vipers, a group of small, venomous species found in the deserts and semi-deserts of northern North Africa eastward through Arabia and Iran
- Bitis caudalis, the horned puff adder, a venomous species found in the arid region of south-west Africa
- Vipera ammodytes, the sand viper, a venomous species found in southern Europe through to the Balkans and parts of the Middle East
- Viper (hieroglyph)
Usage examples of "horned viper".
There are also foot-long venomous centipedes with stingers at both ends, horned viper snakes, and, my personal favorite, the camel spider, also known as the sun spider or wind scorpion.
You are worse than the asp that poisoned Cleopatra, worse than the horned viper whose deceits delight the birds then sacrificed to its hunger, worse than the amphisbaena that, on anyone it grasps, scatters such venom that in an instant he dies, worse than the dread leps that, armed with four venomous teeth, corrupts the flesh it bites, worse than the jacule that darts from trees and stran.