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unicorn
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
unicorn
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Among the existing pseudo-entities, ghosts and unicorns are not especially dangerous.
▪ During his chaste vigil he had a vision of wolves, bears, lions, leopards and unicorns.
▪ In the Empire they would be called unicorn.
▪ Pope Gregory the Great had spoken of taming the wild unicorn, symbol of the man of power.
▪ She doodled a small, ugly dwarf, then a couple of unicorns.
▪ She is a unicorn, thought Jay, contriving ways to have their paths cross.
▪ There are also problems with words like unicorn, roc, elf and dragon.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unicorn

Unicorn \U"ni*corn\, n. [OE. unicorne, F. unicorne, L. unicornis one-horned, having a single horn; unus one + cornu a horn; cf. L. unicornuus a unicorn. See One, and Horn.]

  1. A fabulous animal with one horn; the monoceros; -- often represented in heraldry as a supporter.

  2. A two-horned animal of some unknown kind, so called in the Authorized Version of the Scriptures.

    Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow?
    --Job xxxix. 10.

    Note: The unicorn mentioned in the Scripture was probably the urus. See the Note under Reem.

  3. (Zo["o]l.)

    1. Any large beetle having a hornlike prominence on the head or prothorax.

    2. The larva of a unicorn moth.

  4. (Zo["o]l.) The kamichi; -- called also unicorn bird.

  5. (Mil.) A howitzer. [Obs.]

    Fossil unicorn, or Fossil unicorn's horn (Med.), a substance formerly of great repute in medicine; -- named from having been supposed to be the bone or the horn of the unicorn.

    Unicorn fish, Unicorn whale (Zo["o]l.), the narwhal.

    Unicorn moth (Zo["o]l.), a notodontian moth ( C[oe]lodasys unicornis) whose caterpillar has a prominent horn on its back; -- called also unicorn prominent.

    Unicorn root (Bot.), a name of two North American plants, the yellow-flowered colicroot ( Aletris farinosa) and the blazing star ( Cham[ae]lirium luteum). Both are used in medicine.

    Unicorn shell (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of marine gastropods having a prominent spine on the lip of the shell. Most of them belong to the genera Monoceros and Leucozonia.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
unicorn

early 13c., from Old French unicorne, from Late Latin unicornus (Vulgate), from noun use of Latin unicornis (adj.) "having one horn," from uni- "one" (see uni-) + cornus "horn" (see horn (n.)).\n

\nThe Late Latin word translates Greek monoceros, itself rendering Hebrew re'em (Deut. xxxiii.17 and elsewhere), which probably was a kind of wild ox. According to Pliny, a creature with a horse's body, deer's head, elephant's feet, lion's tail, and one black horn two cubits long projecting from its forehead. Compare German Einhorn, Welsh ungorn, Breton uncorn, Old Church Slavonic ino-rogu.

Wiktionary
unicorn

n. 1 (rft-sense)A mythical beast resembling a horse with a single, straight, spiraled horn projecting from its forehead. 2 A heraldic representation of such a beast used as a charge or as a supporter; as in the arms of Great Britain and of Scotland. 3 (context historical English) In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin (term unicornis Latin) or (term rhinoceros Latin) (representing Hebrew (term רְאֵם Hebrew)); a reem or wild ox. 4 Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax. 5 The larva of a unicorn moth. 6 The kamichi, or unicorn bird. 7 (cx military English) A howitzer.

WordNet
unicorn

n. an imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead

Wikipedia
Unicorn

The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The unicorn was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization and was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, and Aelian. The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em, which some translations have erroneously rendered with the word unicorn.

In European folklore, the unicorn is often depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long horn and cloven hooves (sometimes a goat's beard). In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was commonly described as an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace, which could only be captured by a virgin. In the encyclopedias its horn was said to have the power to render poisoned water potable and to heal sickness. In medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as unicorn horn.

Unicorn (disambiguation)

A unicorn is a mythical and heraldic beast which looks like a horse with a horn between its ears.

Groups of two or more unicorns are referred to as a "glitter" of unicorns.

Unicorn may also refer to:

Unicorn (Tyrannosaurus Rex album)

Unicorn is the third studio album by English psychedelic folk (later glam rock) band Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as T. Rex). It was released on 16 May 1969 by record labels Regal Zonophone and Blue Thumb, and was the last Tyrannosaurus Rex album to feature Steve Peregrin Took.

Unicorn (comics)

Unicorn is the codename of multiple fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first Unicorn (Milos Masaryk) debuted in Tales of Suspense #56 (Aug. 1964) and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Unicorn (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a unicorn is a mysterious, majestic magical beast. It resembles an imposing and beautiful white horse, with glowing eyes, a silky mane and tail, and the stereotypical spiraling, shell-shaped horn coming from its forehead. Unlike horses, they have cloven hooves, and males have a goat's beard.

Unicorn (ship)

'''The Unicorn'' (') is a fictional 17th-century three-masted armed Royal Navy vessel appearing in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The ship plays a leading role in both The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, published in 1943 and 1944, respectively. The Unicorn also appears in the 2011 film adaptation The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

In the Tintin adventures, the Unicorn is the setting of a battle between pirates and sailors followed by a duel between Sir Francis Haddock (an ancestor of Captain Haddock) and the pirate Red Rackham. The Unicorn is scuttled and sinks, only to be discovered years later by Tintin and his friends in an attempt to locate Red Rackham's treasure.

Unicorn (spider)

'Unicorn '("one horn", in Latin) is a genus of goblin spiders (family Oonopidae) from South America, containing seven species that occur predominantly in high elevation, semi-desert regions of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Individuals are relatively large for goblin spiders, measuring up to 3.0 mm (0.12 in) in body length. The genus name refers to a characteristic pointed projection between the eyes and jaws of males. In at least one species, broken-off tips of the male pedipalps have been found within the genitalia of females, postulated as a means of sperm competition. Unicorn possesses several traits that suggest it is a relatively " primitive" member of the Oonopidae, and is classified with other similar, soft-bodied goblin spiders in the subfamily Sulsulinae.

Unicorn (Ugress album)

Unicorn is the third album released by the Norwegian electronica project Ugress. It was released on Tuba records/ Port Azur in 2008.

Unicorn (Chew Lips album)

Unicorn is the debut album by British dance-pop trio Chew Lips. It was released on 25 January 2010.

Unicorn (Japanese band)

is a Japanese rock band, formed in 1986, consisting of Koichi Kawanishi (drums), Tamio Okuda (vocals, rhythm guitar), Isamu Teshima (lead guitar), Kazushi Horiuchi (bass guitar), and Yoshiharu Abe (keyboard, vocals). They reunited in 2009.

There was another band named Unicorn not to be confused with this one, who recorded albums for Transatlantic, Charisma and Harvest during the 1970s. They were a pop/folk/soft rock band.

Unicorn has also recorded the theme song for the Space Brothers anime for episodes 01-13, titled "Feel So Moon".

Unicorn (coin)

The unicorn was a gold coin that formed part of Scottish coinage between 1484 and 1525. It was initially issued in the reign of James III with a value of 18 shillings Scots, but rising gold prices during the reign of James V caused its value to increase first to 20 shillings, and then 22. The obverse of the coin shows a crowned unicorn. The significance is that the unicorn is one of the heraldic symbols of Scotland, occurring most notably in the royal coat of arms of Scotland as crowned and chained supporters.

According to the British Museum, it became the coin favoured by Scottish kings when making gifts to foreigners, as in 1503 when James IV gave 100 unicorns to Lord Dacre, the English ambassador.

A half-unicorn (lower left in photo) was introduced with a value of 9 shillings during the reign of James IV. It also rose in value due to gold prices under James V, first to 10, and then 11 shillings.

The unicorn was replaced during the reign of James V with the gold crown, or Abbey crown, which had a value of 20 shillings.

Unicorn (finance)

A unicorn is a start-up company valued at over $1 billion. Canadian tech unicorns are known as narwhals. A decacorn is a word used for those companies over $10 billion, while hectocorn is the appropriate term for such a company valued over $100 billion. According to VentureBeat, there were 229 unicorns . The largest unicorns included Uber, Xiaomi, Airbnb, Palantir, Snapchat, Dropbox and Pinterest. As of October 2015, Uber was valued by Fortune at US$51 billion.

Bill Gurley, a partner at Benchmark predicted in March 2015 and earlier that the rapid increase in the number of unicorns may presage what he has termed a "risk bubble" that will eventually burst, leaving in its wake what he terms dead unicorns.

Unicorn (South Korean band)

Unicorn is a four-member K-pop girl group produced by veteran R&B singer Kim Jo-han under Show Brothers Entertainment. According to Kim, “the name refers to the group’s goal to heal people with music, just like a unicorn’s horn is said to have the power of therapy.” The band debuted on September 3, 2015.

Unicorn (Basement Jaxx song)

"Unicorn" is a song by British house music duo Basement Jaxx. With vocals provided by Yzabel.

Usage examples of "unicorn".

Under a magnificently embroidered baldachin blazed the ducal arms: a unicorn on a field gules.

But even though it was in a bad mood, the Blabbermouth was at least making sense for a change, which meant a unicorn must have come out of the woods last night and purified it.

Much vegetation had been nipped by early frost, and storms blew in every other day, roaring across the Pan Woods to rot what little provender remained and force the unicorns to spend full as much time huddling underhill as they did foraging for food.

And they parted late, praising magic in no loud tones, and went secretly back to their houses, for they feared the curse that the Freer had called down upon unicorns, and knew not if their own names might become involved in one of the curses called upon magical things.

For there on the flat shore were pictures of Grecian lions and Mediterranean goats and maidens with flesh of sand like powdered gold and satyrs piping on hand-carved horns and children dancing, strewing flowers along and along the beach with lambs gambolling after and musicians skipping to their harps and lyres, and unicorns racing youths towards distant meadows, woodlands, ruined temples and volcanoes.

Especially Niffy Gliff, who is half dragon, half Pegasus, with a unicorn horn from somewhere in her ancestry.

The herd surged toward her and her goatling companions, who waved upheld forelimbs and whistled in perfect imitation of unicorns.

Jan felt the blood drain from him at the thought of the mad king charging unchecked among these slight, retiring goatlings, only lately come to trust unicorns.

Molly Grue gasped when she saw his face, for it was the friendly, rumpled face of the young prince who had read a magazine while his princess tried to call a unicorn.

As you have seen, we have by happy chance brought to this land our fine flying steeds, a wondrous crossbreed between the giant golden eagle and the hornless unicorn, a beast of marvelous properties, the most miraculous of which are swiftness and ferocity in battle.

The rest of the herd seemed to take inspiration from Shalkan, for in an instant, every single unicorn, from the flame-red stallion to a pair of leggy hornless foals, was bounding along after Shalkan, as smooth and flowing as a flight of birds.

Without long-term studies of its effects on real people, Huevos Verdes had no more chance of marketing Case 1892-A than of marketing powdered unicorn horn.

Unicorn healing had reclaimed the bodies of the Everclear villagers and mended the wounds of Leofwin and Wulfric.

Today seven tiny live action figures were set out: a woman, a man, a unicorn, a beetle, a snake, a pig, and a mynah bird.

Tanaquil knew the peeve was only interested in the parts for the unicorn.