unicorns

Noun

unicorn (plural unicorns)

1. A mythical, horselike creature with a horn on its forehead, supposed to be extremely rare and to be drawn to virgins and other chaste maidens.
   • [Seb.] A liuing Drolerie: now I will beleeue / That there are Vnicornes:[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...

   Synonyms:

   monoceros

2. In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.
   • God brought him forth out of Egypt, he hath as it were the ſtrength of an Vnicorne: he ſhall eate vp the nations his enemies, and ſhall breake their bones, and pierce them thorow with his arrowes.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 24:8, column 1
3. Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax, especially the Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus.
4. A caterpillar, Schizura unicornis, with a large thorn-like spine on the back near its head.
5. The kamichi, or unicorn bird.
6. A Siberian unicorn, †Elasmotherium sibiricum.

See all 19 meanings of unicorn