drakes

Noun (1)

drake (plural drakes)

1. A male duck (bird).
   • A drake belonging to a chemist, having drunk water out of a copper vessel which had contained phosphorous, continued its amorous activities until death.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 202

Noun (2)

drake (plural drakes)

1. (poetic) dragon
   • Clay caught sight of the drake's wing outlined against the rising flames as it swept low over the desert.2016, Anthony Ryan, The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria
   1. (poetic) lesser draconic creature
2. beaked galley, or Viking warship

   Synonyms:

   dragon, dragonship

3. (historical) small piece of artillery
   • Two or three shots, made at them by a couple of drakes, made them stagger.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed...
4. a fiery meteor (variously known as fiery serpents and dragons in many cultures)
   • The moon’s my constant Mistresse
     & the lowlie owle my morrowe.
     The flaming Drake and yͤ Nightcrowe makec. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

See all 22 meanings of drake