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/ˈædər/ Listen

noun

Adder n. One who, or that which, adds; esp., a machine for adding numbers.

Adder n.

A serpent. (Obs.) "The eddre seide to the woman."

(Zool.)

(a)

A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera. The common European adder is the Vipera berus or Pelias berus. The puff adders of Africa are species of Clotho.

(b)

In America, the term is commonly applied to several harmless snakes, as the milk adder, puffing adder, etc.

(c)

Same as Sea Adder. Note: In the sculptures the appellation is given to several venomous serpents, sometimes to the horned viper (Cerastles).

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Etymology of 'Adder'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Adder" Quotes from Famous Books

... on the tender spring; Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers; The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing; What virtue breeds iniquity devours: We have no good that we can say is ours, But ill-annexed Opportunity Or kills his life ...

— The Rape of Lucrece • William Shakespeare [Clark edition]

... never have rested so quietly with one of the friar's sort so close beside him. As for the friar, had he known who Robin Hood was, you may well believe he would almost as soon have slept with an adder as with the man he had for ...

— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle

... up over the cliffs with my children, after their return from school at noon, to gather wild flowers, it being May-day. We came in with the spring beauty, called miscodeed by the Indians, the adder's tongue, ...

— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... embodied at Quebec. In general form and feature Le Gardeur was a manly reflex of his beautiful sister Amelie, but his countenance was marred with traces of debauchery. His face was inflamed, and his dark eyes, so like his sister's, by nature tender and true, were now glittering with the adder tongues of ...

— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... meals, does not indulge in hostile demonstrations. There is no strife among neighbours nor any of those sudden unfurlings of the wings so dear to the Mantis when she assumes the spectral attitude and puffs like a startled Adder; never the least inclination for those cannibal banquets whereat the sister who has been worsted in the fight is devoured. Such ...

— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre

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