dragons

Noun

dragon (plural dragons)

1. In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.
   • Medea for the loue of Iaſon, taught him how to tame the fire breathing braſſ feeted Bulls, and kill the mighty dragon that kept the golden fleece[.]1632, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cryps, page 548

   Synonyms:

   drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy, dwaggy

2. In Eastern Asian mythologies, a large, snake-like monster with the eyes of a hare, the horns of a stag and the claws of a tiger, usually beneficent.
   • These tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely with those of another.1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter XIII, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

   Synonyms:

   drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy, dwaggy

3. (obsolete) A very large snake; a python.
4. Any of various agamid lizards of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona.
5. A Komodo dragon.
6. A sea dragon.

See all 19 meanings of dragon