DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 drag·on n.
 1. Myth. A fabulous animal, generally represented as a monstrous winged serpent or lizard, with a crested head and enormous claws, and regarded as very powerful and ferocious.
    The dragons which appear in early paintings and sculptures are invariably representations of a winged crocodile.   --Fairholt.
 Note: ☞ In Scripture the term dragon refers to any great monster, whether of the land or sea, usually to some kind of serpent or reptile, sometimes to land serpents of a powerful and deadly kind. It is also applied metaphorically to Satan.
    Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.   -- Ps. lxxiv. 13.
    Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.   -- Ps. xci. 13.
    He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.   --Rev. xx. 2.
 2. A fierce, violent person, esp. a woman.
 3. Astron. A constellation of the northern hemisphere figured as a dragon; Draco.
 4. A luminous exhalation from marshy grounds, seeming to move through the air as a winged serpent.
 5. Mil. Antiq. A short musket hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt; -- so called from a representation of a dragon's head at the muzzle.
 6. Zool. A small arboreal lizard of the genus Draco, of several species, found in the East Indies and Southern Asia. Five or six of the hind ribs, on each side, are prolonged and covered with weblike skin, forming a sort of wing. These prolongations aid them in making long leaps from tree to tree. Called also flying lizard.
 7. Zool. A variety of carrier pigeon.
 8. Her. A fabulous winged creature, sometimes borne as a charge in a coat of arms.
 Note: ☞ Dragon is often used adjectively, or in combination, in the sense of relating to, resembling, or characteristic of, a dragon.
 Dragon arum Bot., the name of several species of Arisæma, a genus of plants having a spathe and spadix. See Dragon root(below).
 Dragon fish Zool., the dragonet.
 Dragon fly Zool., any insect of the family Libellulidæ. They have finely formed, large and strongly reticulated wings, a large head with enormous eyes, and a long body; -- called also mosquito hawks. Their larvæ are aquatic and insectivorous.
 Dragon root Bot., an American aroid plant (Arisæma Dracontium); green dragon.
 Dragon's blood, a resinous substance obtained from the fruit of several species of Calamus, esp. from Calamus Rotang and Calamus Draco, growing in the East Indies. A substance known as dragon's blood is obtained by exudation from Dracæna Draco; also from Pterocarpus Draco, a tree of the West Indies and South America. The color is red, or a dark brownish red, and it is used chiefly for coloring varnishes, marbles, etc. Called also Cinnabar Græcorum.
 Dragon's head. (a) Bot. A plant of several species of the genus Dracocephalum. They are perennial herbs closely allied to the common catnip. (b) Astron. The ascending node of a planet, indicated, chiefly in almanacs, by the symbol ░. The deviation from the ecliptic made by a planet in passing from one node to the other seems, according to the fancy of some, to make a figure like that of a dragon, whose belly is where there is the greatest latitude; the intersections representing the head and tail; -- from which resemblance the denomination arises. --Encyc. Brit.
 Dragon shell Zool., a species of limpet.
 Dragon's skin, fossil stems whose leaf scars somewhat resemble the scales of reptiles; -- a name used by miners and quarrymen. --Stormonth.
 Dragon's tail Astron., the descending node of a planet, indicated by the symbol ░. See Dragon's head (above).
 Dragon's wort Bot., a plant of the genus Artemisia (Artemisia dracunculus).
 Dragon tree Bot., a West African liliaceous tree (Dracæna Draco), yielding one of the resins called dragon's blood. See Dracæna.
 Dragon water, a medicinal remedy very popular in the earlier half of the 17th century. “Dragon water may do good upon him.” --Randolph (1640).
 Flying dragon, a large meteoric fireball; a bolide.
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 Green a. [Compar. Greener superl. Greenest.]
 1. Having the color of grass when fresh and growing; resembling that color of the solar spectrum which is between the yellow and the blue; verdant; emerald.
 2. Having a sickly color; wan.
    To look so green and pale.   --Shak.
 3. Full of life and vigor; fresh and vigorous; new; recent; as, a green manhood; a green wound.
    As valid against such an old and beneficent government as against . . . the greenest usurpation.   --Burke.
 4. Not ripe; immature; not fully grown or ripened; as, green fruit, corn, vegetables, etc.
 5. Not roasted; half raw. [R.]
    We say the meat is green when half roasted.   --L. Watts.
 6. Immature in age, judgment, or experience; inexperienced; young; raw; not trained; awkward; as, green in years or judgment.
    I might be angry with the officious zeal which supposes that its green conceptions can instruct my gray hairs.   --Sir W. Scott.
 7. Not seasoned; not dry; containing its natural juices; as, green wood, timber, etc.
 Green brier Bot., a thorny climbing shrub (Emilaz rotundifolia) having a yellowish green stem and thick leaves, with small clusters of flowers, common in the United States; -- called also cat brier.
 Green con Zool., the pollock.
 Green crab Zool., an edible, shore crab (Carcinus menas) of Europe and America; -- in New England locally named joe-rocker.
 Green crop, a crop used for food while in a growing or unripe state, as distingushed from a grain crop, root crop, etc.
 Green diallage. Min. (a) Diallage, a variety of pyroxene. (b) Smaragdite.
 Green dragon Bot., a North American herbaceous plant (Arisæma Dracontium), resembling the Indian turnip; -- called also dragon root.
 Green earth Min., a variety of glauconite, found in cavities in amygdaloid and other eruptive rock, and used as a pigment by artists; -- called also mountain green.
 Green ebony. (a) A south American tree (Jacaranda ovalifolia), having a greenish wood, used for rulers, turned and inlaid work, and in dyeing. (b) The West Indian green ebony. See Ebony.
 Green fire (Pyrotech.), a composition which burns with a green flame. It consists of sulphur and potassium chlorate, with some salt of barium (usually the nitrate), to which the color of the flame is due.
 Green fly Zool., any green species of plant lice or aphids, esp. those that infest greenhouse plants.
 Green gage, Bot. See Greengage, in the Vocabulary.
 Green gland Zool., one of a pair of large green glands in Crustacea, supposed to serve as kidneys. They have their outlets at the bases of the larger antennæ.
 Green hand, a novice. [Colloq.]
 Green heart Bot., the wood of a lauraceous tree found in the West Indies and in South America, used for shipbuilding or turnery. The green heart of Jamaica and Guiana is the Nectandra Rodiœi, that of Martinique is the Colubrina ferruginosa.
 Green iron ore  (Min.) dufrenite.
 Green laver Bot., an edible seaweed  (Ulva latissima); -- called also green sloke.
 Green lead ore (Min.), pyromorphite.
 Green linnet Zool., the greenfinch.
 Green looper Zool., the cankerworm.
 Green marble (Min.), serpentine.
 Green mineral, a carbonate of copper, used as a pigment. See Greengill.
 Green monkey Zool. a West African long-tailed monkey (Cercopithecus callitrichus), very commonly tamed, and trained to perform tricks. It was introduced into the West Indies early in the last century, and has become very abundant there.
 Green salt of Magnus (Old Chem.), a dark green crystalline salt, consisting of ammonia united with certain chlorides of platinum.
 Green sand (Founding)  molding sand used for a mold while slightly damp, and not dried before the cast is made.
 Green sea (Naut.), a wave that breaks in a solid mass on a vessel's deck.
 Green sickness Med., chlorosis.
 Green snake Zool., one of two harmless American snakes (Cyclophis vernalis, and C. æstivus). They are bright green in color.
 Green turtle Zool., an edible marine turtle. See Turtle.
 Green vitriol. (a) Chem. Sulphate of iron; a light green crystalline substance, very extensively used in the preparation of inks, dyes, mordants, etc. (b) Min. Same as copperas, melanterite and sulphate of iron.
 Green ware, articles of pottery molded and shaped, but not yet baked.
 Green woodpecker Zool., a common European woodpecker (Picus viridis); -- called also yaffle.