Venomous \Ven"om*ous\, a. [OE. venemous, venimous, F. venimeux,
L. venenosus, fr. venenum poison. See Venom, and cf.
Venenose.]
1. Full of venom; noxious to animal life; poisonous; as, the
bite of a serpent may be venomous.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Zool.) Having a poison gland or glands for the secretion
of venom, as certain serpents and insects.
[1913 Webster]
3. Noxious; mischievous; malignant; spiteful; as, a venomous
progeny; a venomous writer.
[1913 Webster]
Venomous snake (Zool.), any serpent which has poison glands
and fangs, whether dangerous to man or not. These serpents
constitute two tribes, the viperine serpents, or
Solenoglypha, and the cobralike serpents, or
Proteroglypha. The former have perforated, erectile fangs
situated in the front part of the upper jaw, and are
without ordinary teeth behind the fangs; the latter have
permanently erect and grooved fangs, with ordinary
maxillary teeth behind them.
[1913 Webster] --
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
venomous
adj 1: extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom; "venomous
snakes"; "a virulent insect bite" [syn: deadly, virulent]
2: harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing
otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid comments";
"her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words";
"blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political
assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a
sulfurous denunciation" [syn: acerb, acerbic, acid,
acrid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous,
virulent, vitriolic]
3: marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful; "a malevolent
lie"; "poisonous hate...in his eyes"- Ernest Hemingway;
"venomous criticism"; "vicious gossip" [syn: poisonous,
vicious]
WordNet (r) 2.0
108 Moby Thesaurus words for "venomous":
acerbic, acrid, acute, antagonistic, antipathetic, baleful,
baneful, belligerent, bitter, catching, caustic, clashing,
colliding, communicable, conflicting, contagious, corroding,
corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cutting,
damaging, dangerous, deadly, deleterious, despiteful, destructive,
detrimental, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, drastic,
embittered, envenomed, excessive, exorbitant, extravagant, extreme,
fierce, full of hate, furious, great, harmful, hateful, hostile,
hurtful, immoderate, infectious, infective, injurious, intemperate,
intense, keen, lethal, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious,
malign, malignant, mean, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic,
mischievous, noisome, noxious, ominous, outrageous, pernicious,
pestiferous, pestilential, piercing, poison, poisonous,
prejudicial, quarrelsome, rancorous, repugnant, rigorous, rough,
savage, scatheful, set against, severe, sharp, sore, spiteful,
splenetic, splitting, tough, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous,
unconscionable, vehement, venenate, veneniferous, venenous,
vicious, violent, viperish, viperlike, viperous, virulent,
vitriolic
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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