serpent-like, a. and adv.
[-like.]
A. adj. Like a serpent; = serpentine a.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. (1622) 93 A creeping serpent-like of mortall woe. 1629 H. Burton Truth's Tri. 307 His serpent-like gate. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Wks. (1711) 4/1 Serpent-like Meander. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1825) III. 159 Its serpent-like figure. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right xxv, I re-read the serpent-like scroll which had been cast into my Eden of love and faith. |
B. adv. With serpentine motion, habit, disposition, etc.; † malignantly, treacherously.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear ii. iv. 163 She hath..Look'd blacke vpon me, strooke me with her Tongue Most Serpent-like, vpon the very Heart. 1682 Lister Gœdart Of Insects 109 These Insects did put off their skins, Serpent like. a 1699 J. Beaumont Psyche i. clxvi. (1702) 10 Where, Serpent-like, in Paradise, she over Her foul Design spread this fair-faced cover. 1825 Scott Talism. xxi, The marabout..glided on..serpent-like, or rather snail-like. |