viper
(ˈvaɪpə(r))
Also 6 vyper, vypar, veper.
[a. OF. vipere, vipre (mod.F. vipère, = Pr. vipera, vipra, vibra fem., vibre masc., Sp. and Pg. vibora, It. vipera) or ad. L. vīpera viper, snake, serpent, contracted from vīvi-pera, f. vīvus alive, living, and parĕre to bring forth. See also wiver.]
1. a. The small ovo-viviparous snake Pelias berus (formerly Coluber berus or Vipera communis), abundant in Europe and the only venomous snake found in Great Britain; the adder; in general use, any venomous, dangerous, or repulsive snake or serpent.
The flesh of the viper was formerly regarded as possessing great nutritive or restorative properties, and was frequently used medicinally.
| 1526 Tindale Acts xxviii. 3 When Paul had gaddered a boundle of stickes, And putt them into the fyre, a viper (be cause off the heet) creept out. 1545 Brinklow Lament. 116 The vypar aboue all other..serpentes is most fullest of poyson. 1551 Turner Herbal (1568) i. B v, Garlyke..helpeth the bytyng of a veper. 1583 Greene Mamillia i. Wks. (Grosart) II. 74 The Elephant being enuenomed with the Viper, eateth him vp, and is healed. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Viper, a venemous serpent in some hot countries lying much in the earth, hauing a short taile, which grateth and maketh a noise as he goeth. 1634 Peacham Compl. Gentl. (ed. 2) xii. 109 Some mortals also are knowne by their cognisances, as..Cleopatra by a viper. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 629 With that rank Odour from thy Dwelling⁓place To drive the Viper's Brood, and all the venom'd Race. 1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 65 The proper virtue of the Sicilian is, to subdue the poison of vipers. 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 17 Vipers are found in many parts of this island. 1805 Bingley Anim. Biog. (ed. 3) III. 95 The Viper is the only one, either of the Reptile or Serpent tribes, in Great Britain, from whose bite we have any thing to fear. 1857 Borrow Romany Rye App. ix, The duty of the true critic is to play the part of a leech, and not of a viper. |
| transf. and fig. 1535 Joye Apol. Tindale 24 Ar not these the venomouse tethe of vepers that thus gnawe a nother mannis name? 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 193 These blind and swalowyng sandes, the Spaniardes caule Vypers: And that by good reason, bycause in them many shyppes are entangled. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. i. 145 Hot bloud, hot thoughts, and hot deedes, why they are Vipers, is Loue a generation of Vipers? 1713 Waterland Serm. Assizes Cambr. 13 Special care therefore must be taken to find out this lurking Viper [sc. pride] in our Bosoms, and to cast it far from us. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxvii, Then comes remorse, with all its vipers, mixed with vain regrets for the past. |
b. Zool. Applied with distinguishing terms to other species of the genus
Vipera, the sub-order
Viperina, or snakes resembling the common viper.
For
horned,
pit,
red,
sand,
water,
yellow viper, see those terms.
| 1736 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 254 Vipera fusca: the brown Viper in Virginia. In Carolina it is called the Truncheon-Snake. 1743 Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina (1771) II. 44 The Black Viper..is short and thick, of slow motion. Ibid. 45 The Brown Viper..is..in length about two feet, and large in proportion. 1778 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) III. 2096/1 The Vipera, or common viper of the shops... It is a native of Egypt, and other warm countries. 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. ii. 377 Egyptian Viper. Ibid. 382 Swedish Viper. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 185 Vip[era] brachyura, Cuv. (The Minute Viper.) 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 347/2 Variegated Viper—that described by Mr. Bell from Hornsey Wood. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 1099–1101 [Various species]. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. v. i. 250 The Vipera Berus (Daud) or Small Viper (Coluber Ammodytes, Linn.). 1881 Nose-horned viper [see viperling]. |
c. Zool. One or other of the snakes belonging to the genus
Vipera, of which the common viper is the type, or to the family
Viperidæ.
The vipers were formerly classified (following Linnæus) under the order
Coluber, from which they are now separated (
cf. quot. 1834). The
Viperidæ form one of the four families into which the suborder
Viperina (or
Solenoglypha) is now divided.
| 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. ii. 364 The species [of Coluber] differ greatly in size and habit, according to their respective tribes; some, as the Vipers, having large, flattish, and sub⁓cordate heads, with rather short than long bodies and tails. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 185 The vipers, most of which were confounded with the Colubers by Linnæus, on account of their double sub-caudal plates, require to be separated from them from the circumstance of their having poisonous fangs. c 1882 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 311 The Vipers (Viperidæ)..have a large broad head, a vertical and long pupil in the eye, and the top of the head is covered with very little plates and scales. |
2. fig. A venomous, malignant, or spiteful person; a villain or scoundrel.
In some
quots. the influence of sense 3 or 3 b is perceptible.
| [1526 Tindale Matt. iii. 7 He sayde vnto them: O generacion of vipers, who hath taught you to fle from the vengeaunce to come?] 1591 Greene Conny Catch. Wks. (Grosart) X. 39 These villanous vipers, vnworthy the name of men, base roagues,..being outcasts from God, vipers of the world. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 265 Where is this Viper, That would depopulate the city, & be euery man himself? 1613 J. Taylor (Water P.) Watermen's Suit Wks. (1630) 173, I will regard such Vipers and their slander so little, that their malice [etc.]. 1642–4 Vicars God in Mount (1844) 149 That most mischievous Viper of our Church & State too, Mathew Wren Bp. of Elie. 1693 Dryden Juvenal vi. 836, I (she confesses) in the Fact was caught; Two Sons dispatching, at one deadly Draught. What Two, Two Sons, thou Viper, in one day? 1819 Shelley Cenci i. iii. 165 Cenci (to Beatrice). Thou painted viper! Beast that thou art! Fair and yet terrible! 1832 Warren Diary Late Physic. II. ii. 88 ‘Cannot this infamous scoundrel be brought to justice?’ I inquired. ‘If he were, he may prove, perhaps, not worth powder and shot, the viper!’ 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy II. iv. 85 ‘What a generation of vipers!’ thought he, ‘what a hydra brood of oppressors!’ 1850 Marsden Early Purit. (1853) 403 The seditious carriage of some vipers of the lower house. |
3. In other figurative or allusive uses:
† a. In allusion to the supposition that the female viper was killed by her young eating their way out at birth.
Obs. Cf. Pliny
Nat. Hist. x. lxii. 82.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii, Out viper, thou that eat'st thy parents, hence! 1608 Shakes. Per. i. i. 64, I am no viper, yet I feed On mother's flesh which did me breed. |
b. In allusion to the fable of the viper reared or revived in a person's bosom: One who betrays or is false to those who have supported or nourished him; a false or treacherous person.
Cf. snake n. 2 a.
Partly after the similar L. uses
in sinu viperam habere (Cicero) and
viperam nutricare sub ala (Petronius).
| 1596 Edward III, i. i. 105 Degenerate Traytor, viper to the place Where thou was fostred in thine infancy. a 1688 Bp. S. Parker in H. Coleridge North. Worthies (1852) I. 68 Tenderness and indulgence to such men were to nourish vipers in our bowels. 1689 Muses Farew. to Popery 28 Ev'n thy Royal Patron was not spar'd..O strange return to a forgiving King, But the warm'd Viper wears the greatest Sting. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xviii. viii, He is the brother of that wicked viper which I have so long nourished in my bosom. 1821–2 Shelley Chas. I, ii. 214 Mark the consequence of warming This brood of northern vipers in your bosom. 1911 Riker Ld. Holland I. iii. 164 The Newcastles had been in terror lest they had raised a viper in their midst. |
4. One who smokes marijuana or opium,
esp. habitually. Also, a heroin addict. Now
rare.
| 1938 M. Berger in New Yorker 12 Mar. 36/1 They play special recordings of viper, or weed, songs with weird ritualistic themes. Ibid., I was not a viper, which is the Harlem word for a marijuana smoker. 1943 I. Lang Background of Blues 21 The addict is a ‘viper’ who ‘likes to smoke’ or ‘climbs the bush’. 1956 D. Webb Line-Up for Crime iv. 69 Three good shots of heroin and you're a viper for life. A viper is an addict. 1959 Murtagh & Harris Who live in Shadow (1960) i. iv. 54 They said I wasn't just a viper but also scumpteen of a pusher. 1977 Canadian 8 Jan. 15/1 He wrote that song in the late Thirties, back when people who smoked marijuana used to be called vipers. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. a. Comb., as
viper-curled,
viper-green,
viper-haunted,
viper-headed,
viper-mouthed,
viper-nourished adjs.;
viper-catcher,
viper-hunter,
viper-hunting.
| a 1593 Marlowe Ovid's Elegies iii. xi. 26 Our verse great Tityus a huge space out-spreads, And giues the viper curled Dogge three heads. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 526 If it happen that..any man chaunce to light vpon these Viper⁓nourished blinde-Dormise. 1702 R. Mead Poisons 29 Our Viper-Catchers have a Remedy,..in which They do place..great Confidence. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 199 The seeming rashness of one Tozzi, a viper-catcher. 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. ii. 465 Viper-headed snake. Coluber Viperinus. 1804 Ibid. V. i. 120 Viper-mouthed Pike. Esox Stomias. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 349/1 In England these reptiles were caught with a cleft or forked stick, which the viper-catcher drove down immediately behind the head. 1851 Borrow Lavengro iv, When a person is timid in viper⁓hunting he had better leave off. Ibid., Besides being a viper-hunter, I am what they call a herbalist. 1904 W. M. Gallichan Fishing Spain 102 These viper-haunted spots. 1958 L. Durrell Mountolive xvi. 300 Among the thickets of reed and sedge, in places polished to black or viper-green by the occasional clinging frosts, you could hear the chuckling..of..duck. 1976 Star (Sheffield) 3 Dec. 25/9 (Advt.), 1975 (N) VW Passat 1300... Attractively finished in viper green. |
b. Simple
attrib., as
viper bite,
viper fat,
viper flesh,
viper group,
viper kind,
viper oil,
viper spirit,
viper virus.
| 1721 Bailey, Viperous, of the Viper kind or belonging to Adders. 1754 Bartlet Gentlem. Farriery Index, Viper bite, how to be treated. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 199 Viper oil or fat, which shou'd be fresh, is a sovereign remedy against the stinging of bees..and other venomous insects. 1776 G. White Selborne 29 April, This little fry [of fifteen vipers] issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 349/1 Pliny, Galen, and others praise the efficacy of viper flesh in the cure of ulcers [etc.]. 1870 Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds ii. 88 Such are the terrible weapons of the Viper group. 1891 ‘Son of Marshes’ On Surrey Hills 61 Viper-oil..you would find in all the woodmen's cottages. 1894 Daily News 8 Feb. 5/4 By heating some viper virus at a temperature of 85 degrees Centigrade. |
c. With intensive force (passing in later use into
adj.),
= Venomous, extremely bitter, viperous.
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 95 York and Lancaster, Ambitious broachers of that Viper-War. 1605 Ibid., Sonn. Late Peace xxviii, All the tempests of our Viper-Warre. 1788 Burns Poet's Progr. 30 Viper-critics cureless venom dart. 1876 Sir E. M. Thompson Chron. A. de Usk 221 The viper race of Lombardy, split up into Guelphs and Ghibellines. 1899 B. Harraden Fowler 75, I can't abide the little viper man. Ibid. 83 He don't like that little viper gentleman any more than I. |
6. a. Special combs., as
viper-broth, broth made from vipers, or in which a viper has been boiled, formerly supposed to possess nutritive or invigorating properties;
viper-fish, a deep-sea fish of the family
Chauliodontidæ,
esp. Chauliodus sloani (
Cent. Dict. 1891);
viper-gourd, an East Indian climbing gourd,
Trichosanthes colubrina, remarkable for its ugliness (
Treas. Bot. 1866);
viper-grass = viper's grass; also
attrib.;
viper-jelly (
cf. viper-broth);
† viper-mouth (see
quot. and
cf. viper-fish above);
† viper-stone = serpentine n. 3;
viper-weever, the lesser weever,
Trachinus vipera;
viper-wine, wine medicated by an extract or decoction obtained from vipers, formerly drunk on account of its supposed restorative or vitalizing properties;
† viper-worm = viper 1.
| 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 327 Hunted Venison, Stale Meats, *Viper Broths, or Wine. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. i. 509 Viper-broth is both anti-acid and nourishing. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 349/1 The lingering belief in the wonderfully invigorating qualities of ‘viper broth’ is not yet quite extinct in some places. |
| 1656 J. Smith Pract. Physick 238 Topicals must be Specifical Resolvers, as *Viper-grasse. 1711 C. Cleve tr. Cowley's Plants iii. C.'s Wks. III. 347 Viper-grass, full of a milky Juice Good against Poison. 1757 A. Cooper Distiller iii. xv. (1760) 170 Of Viper-grass ten Ounces. 1771 Encycl. Brit. III. 102/2 A decoction made of barley,..viper-grass root, and liquorice. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 232 Wall Viper-grass. Ibid., Common Viper-grass. 1863 Prior Brit. Pl. 234 Viper-grass,..Scorzonera edulis. |
| 1702 R. Mead Poisons 34 The Patient ought to eat frequently of *Viper Gelly; or Broth. |
| 1743 Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina (1771) II. 119 Vipera Marina, the *Viper-Mouth. This Fish is eighteen inches in length. |
| 1738 Phil. Trans. XL. 442 Speaking of the Serpentine or *Viper-Stone, he relates a very extraordinary Accident. |
| 1863 Couch Brit. Fishes II. 48 The *Viper Weever, however, is common on most of the shores of Britain and Ireland. |
| 1631 Massinger Beleeve as You List iv. i, Your *viper wine, So much in practise with gray bearded gallants, [is] But vappa to the nectar of her lippe. 1631 Quarles Hist. Samson Wks. (Grosart) II. 149/2 Their Viper-wines, to make old age presume To feele new lust, and youthfull flames agin. 1745 Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 12 (1748) II. 292 Lady Frolick pouring a glass of viper wine down his throat. 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. ii. 372 Galen..relates very remarkable cures of this disease [sc. elephantiasis] performed by means of viper wine. 1896 Academy 28 Nov. 448/3 The legend that Lady Digby died of drinking viper-wine. |
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 199 Th' innammel'd Scorpion, and the *Viper-worm. 1592 ― Tri. Faith iv. v, The deadly sting of th' ugly Viper-Worm. |
b. Special collocations with
viper's, forming names of plants, as
viper's bugloss, the plant
Echium vulgare or a variety of this;
viper's grass, a plant of the genus
Scorzonera,
esp. S. hispanica;
† viper's herb, viper's bugloss;
viper's plant, viper's grass.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxii. 658 *Vipers Buglosse, or wall Buglosse. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Vipers Buglosse, a Solar herb, the roots and seeds whereof are Cordial and Expellers of Melancholy. 1698 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XX. 402 In Texture very much resembling our Vipers Bugloss. 1777 Jacob Catal. Plants 33 Echium anglicum, English Viper's Bugloss. Echium vulgare, Viper's Bugloss. 1840 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) I. 106 A flinty soil nourishes the Three-leaved Speedwell and the Viper's Bugloss. 1869 Ruskin Q. of Air §87 It [the serpent spirit] enters into the forget-me-not, and the star of heavenly turquoise is corrupted into the viper's bugloss. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccxlii. 596 There be diuers sorts of plants conteined vnder the title of Viperaria, Scorzonera, or *Vipers grasse. 1629 Parkinson Paradisus 301 This Spanish Vipers grasse hath diuers long, and somewhat broad leaues. Ibid., This purple flowred Vipers grasse hath long and narrow leaues. 1718 Ozell tr. Tournefort's Voy. I. 174 A Flower of an inch and half diameter, yellow, like that of the common Vipers-grass. 1842 J. B. Fraser Mesopot. & Assyria xv. 359 East of Mosul, a species of vipers'-grass..abounds, and affords a plentiful nutriment. 1855 Delamer Kitchen Gard. (1861) 32 Scorzonera, Viper's-Grass, or Spanish Salsify. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. cclxxii. 659 It is called..in English vipers Buglosse, Snakes Buglosse, and of some *vipers herbe, and wilde Buglosse the lesser. |
| 1884 tr. De Candolle's Orig. Cultivated Pl. 45 Scorzonera hispanica..was formerly supposed to be an antidote against the bite of adders, and was sometimes called the *viper's plant. |
Hence (chiefly in nonce-use)
v. intr., to have an effect like that of a viper's venom;
ˈviperan,
† viˈpereal,
† ˈvipered,
viˈperian adjs., of or pertaining to a viper; viperine, viperous;
viˈperiform a., having the form of a viper; viperine.
| 1953 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 63 Mr Pugh..mixes especially for Mrs Pugh a venomous porridge unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her. |
| 1877 Talmage Serm. 338 The acid of a soured life, the *viperan sting of a bitter memory. |
| 1748 Phil. Trans. XLV. 662 Hence perhaps the *vipereal Venom..may derive its Force. |
| 1560 Fitzwilliam Let. in Froude Hist. Eng. (1863) VIII. 16 There was not under the sun a more craftier *vipered undermining generation. |
| 1866 J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Met. 115 And Perseus triumphant homeward brings *Viperian spoils. |
| c 1882 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 301 The poisonous Snakes are divided into two groups—the *Viperi⁓form Snakes and the Venomous Colubrines. |