puffadder

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: puff adder

English[edit]

a puffadder puffing

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Afrikaans or South African Dutch pofadder.

Noun[edit]

puffadder (plural puffadders)

  1. Any viper or adder in genus Bitis,
    1. especially, a common puffadder (Bitis arietans), found in Southern Africa. [from late 18th c.]
      • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
        In the pools, too, was a species of small alligator or enormous iguana, I do not know which, that fed, Billali told me, upon the waterfowl, also large quantities of a hideous black water-snake, of which the bite is very dangerous, though not, I gathered, so deadly as a cobra's or a puff adder's.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=puffadder&oldid=78741848"