Serpentine

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Serpentine \Ser"pen*tine\, a. [L. serpentinus: cf. F.
     serpentin.]
     Resembling a serpent; having the shape or qualities of a
     serpent; subtle; winding or turning one way and the other,
     like a moving serpent; anfractuous; meandering; sinuous;
     zigzag; as, serpentine braid.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           Thy shape
           Like his, and color serpentine.          --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Serpentine \Ser"pen*tine\, n. [Cf. (for sense 1) F. serpentine,
     (for sense 2) serpentin.]
     1. (Min.) A mineral or rock consisting chiefly of the hydrous
        silicate of magnesia. It is usually of an obscure green
        color, often with a spotted or mottled appearance
        resembling a serpent's skin. Precious, or noble,
        serpentine is translucent and of a rich oil-green color.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Serpentine has been largely produced by the alteration
           of other minerals, especially of chrysolite.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Ordnance) A kind of ancient cannon.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Serpentine \Ser"pen*tine\, v. i.
     To serpentize. [R.] --Lyttleton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  serpentine
       adj : resembling a serpent in form; "a serpentine wall"; "snaky
             ridges in the sand" [syn: {snaky}, {snakelike}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  223 Moby Thesaurus words for "serpentine":
     Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, Mephistophelian, aberrant,
     aberrative, acute, affluent, ambagious, amphibian, anfractuous,
     anguiform, anguine, arch, artful, astute, bad, batrachian, bent,
     billowing, billowy, cagey, canny, circuitous, circumlocutory,
     clever, colubriform, complex, complicated, confluent, conniving,
     convoluted, convolutional, coursing, crafty, crawling, creeping,
     crocodilian, crooked, cunning, curvaceous, curvate, curvated,
     curve, curved, curvesome, curviform, curvilineal, curvilinear,
     curving, curvy, cute, deceitful, decurrent, deep, deep-laid,
     defluent, demoniac, demonic, departing, designing, desultory,
     deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devilish, devious,
     diabolic, diabolical, diffluent, digressive, diplomatic,
     discursive, eellike, errant, erratic, evil, excursive, feline,
     flexuose, flexuous, flowing, fluent, fluxional, fluxive, foxy,
     froggy, geosynclinal, guileful, gulfy, gushing, incurvate,
     incurvated, incurved, incurving, indented, indirect, ingenious,
     insidious, inventive, involute, involuted, involutional, knowing,
     labyrinthine, lizardlike, lumbriciform, mazy, meandering,
     meandrous, notched, ophidian, out-of-the-way, pawky, planetary,
     plotting, politic, pouring, profluent, racing, rambling, ready,
     recurvate, recurvated, recurved, recurving, repent, reptant,
     reptile, reptilelike, reptilian, reptiliform, reptiloid,
     resourceful, rivose, rivulose, roundabout, roving, ruffled,
     running, rushing, satanic, saurian, saw-toothed, sawtooth,
     scheming, scored, serpentiform, serpentile, serpentlike,
     serpentoid, serrate, serrated, serried, sharp, shifting, shifty,
     shrewd, sinuate, sinuose, sinuous, slick, slippery, slithering,
     sluggish, sly, smooth, snake-shaped, snakelike, snaking, snaky,
     sneaky, sophistical, stealthy, strategic, stray, streaming,
     subtile, subtle, supple, surging, surgy, swerving, tactical, tidal,
     toadish, toothed, torsional, tortile, tortuous, trickish, tricksy,
     tricky, turning, twisting, twisty, undirected, undulant,
     unhallowed, vagrant, veering, vermicular, vermiculate, vermiform,
     viperiform, viperish, viperlike, viperoid, viperous, vipery,
     vortical, vulpine, wandering, wary, wavy, whorled, wily, winding,
     wormlike, wreathlike, wreathy, zigzag