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dragon

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dragon

 

  6  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Dragon  \Drag"on\,  n.  [F.  dragon,  L.  draco,  fr  Gr  ?,  prob.  fr 
  ?,  ?,  to  look  (akin  to  Skr.  dar?  to  see),  and  so  called  from 
  its  terrible  eyes.  Cf  {Drake}  a  dragon,  {Dragoon}.] 
  1.  (Myth.)  A  fabulous  animal,  generally  represented  as  a 
  monstrous  winged  serpent  or  lizard,  with  a  crested  head 
  and  enormous  claws,  and  regarded  as  very  powerful  and 
  ferocious. 
 
  The  dragons  which  appear  in  early  paintings  and 
  sculptures  are  invariably  representations  of  a 
  winged  crocodile.  --Fairholt. 
 
  Note:  In  Scripture  the  term  dragon  refers  to  any  great 
  monster,  whether  of  the  land  or  sea,  usually  to  some 
  kind  of  serpent  or  reptile,  sometimes  to  land  serpents 
  of  a  powerful  and  deadly  kind  It  is  also  applied 
  metaphorically  to  Satan. 
 
  Thou  breakest  the  heads  of  the  dragons  in  the 
  waters.  --  Ps  lxxiv. 
  13. 
 
  Thou  shalt  tread  upon  the  lion  and  adder;  the 
  young  lion  and  the  dragon  shalt  thou  trample 
  under  feet.  --  Ps  xci. 
  13. 
 
  He  laid  hold  on  the  dragon,  that  old  serpent, 
  which  is  the  Devil  and  Satan,  and  bound  him  a 
  thousand  years.  --Rev.  xx  2. 
 
  2.  A  fierce,  violent  person,  esp.  a  woman.  --Johnson. 
 
  3.  (Astron.)  A  constellation  of  the  northern  hemisphere 
  figured  as  a  dragon;  Draco. 
 
  4.  A  luminous  exhalation  from  marshy  grounds,  seeming  to  move 
  through  the  air  as  a  winged  serpent. 
 
  5.  (Mil.  Antiq.)  A  short  musket  hooked  to  a  swivel  attached 
  to  a  soldier's  belt;  --  so  called  from  a  representation  of 
  a  dragon's  head  at  the  muzzle.  --Fairholt. 
 
  6.  (Zo["o]l.)  A  small  arboreal  lizard  of  the  genus  Draco,  of 
  several  species,  found  in  the  East  Indies  and  Southern 
  Asia.  Five  or  six  of  the  hind  ribs,  on  each  side  are 
  prolonged  and  covered  with  weblike  skin,  forming  a  sort  of 
  wing.  These  prolongations  aid  them  in  making  long  leaps 
  from  tree  to  tree.  Called  also  {flying  lizard}. 
 
  7.  (Zo["o]l.)  A  variety  of  carrier  pigeon. 
 
  8.  (Her.)  A  fabulous  winged  creature,  sometimes  borne  as  a 
  charge  in  a  coat  of  arms. 
 
  Note:  Dragon  is  often  used  adjectively,  or  in  combination,  in 
  the  sense  of  relating  to  resembling,  or  characteristic 
  of  a  dragon. 
 
  {Dragon  arum}  (Bot.),  the  name  of  several  species  of 
  {Aris[ae]ma},  a  genus  of  plants  having  a  spathe  and 
  spadix.  See  {Dragon  root}(below). 
 
  {Dragon  fish}  (Zo["o]l.),  the  dragonet. 
 
  {Dragon  fly}  (Zo["o]l.),  any  insect  of  the  family 
  {Libellulid[ae]}.  They  have  finely  formed,  large  and 
  strongly  reticulated  wings,  a  large  head  with  enormous 
  eyes,  and  a  long  body;  --  called  also  {mosquito  hawks}. 
  Their  larv[ae]  are  aquatic  and  insectivorous. 
 
  {Dragon  root}  (Bot.),  an  American  aroid  plant  ({Aris[ae]ma 
  Dracontium});  green  dragon. 
 
  {Dragon's  blood},  a  resinous  substance  obtained  from  the 
  fruit  of  several  species  of  {Calamus},  esp.  from  {C. 
  Rotang}  and  {C.  Draco},  growing  in  the  East  Indies.  A 
  substance  known  as  dragon's  blood  is  obtained  by  exudation 
  from  {Drac[ae]na  Draco};  also  from  {Pterocarpus  Draco},  a 
  tree  of  the  West  Indies  and  South  America.  The  color  is 
  red,  or  a  dark  brownish  red,  and  it  is  used  chiefly  for 
  coloring  varnishes,  marbles,  etc  Called  also  {Cinnabar 
  Gr[ae]corum}. 
 
  {Dragon's  head}. 
  a  (Bot.)  A  plant  of  several  species  of  the  genus 
  {Dracocephalum}.  They  are  perennial  herbs  closely 
  allied  to  the  common  catnip. 
  b  (Astron.)  The  ascending  node  of  a  planet,  indicated, 
  chiefly  in  almanacs,  by  the  symbol  ?.  The  deviation 
  from  the  ecliptic  made  by  a  planet  in  passing  from  one 
  node  to  the  other  seems  according  to  the  fancy  of 
  some  to  make  a  figure  like  that  of  a  dragon,  whose 
  belly  is  where  there  is  the  greatest  latitude;  the 
  intersections  representing  the  head  and  tail;  --  from 
  which  resemblance  the  denomination  arises.  --Encyc. 
  Brit. 
 
  {Dragon  shell}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  species  of  limpet. 
 
  {Dragon's  skin},  fossil  stems  whose  leaf  scars  somewhat 
  resemble  the  scales  of  reptiles;  --  a  name  used  by  miners 
  and  quarrymen.  --Stormonth. 
 
  {Dragon's  tail}  (Astron.),  the  descending  node  of  a  planet, 
  indicated  by  the  symbol  ?.  See  {Dragon's  head}  (above). 
 
  {Dragon's  wort}  (Bot.),  a  plant  of  the  genus  {Artemisia}  ({A. 
  dracunculus}). 
 
  {Dragon  tree}  (Bot.),  a  West  African  liliaceous  tree 
  ({Drac[ae]na  Draco}),  yielding  one  of  the  resins  called 
  dragon's  blood.  See  {Drac[ae]na}. 
 
  {Dragon  water},  a  medicinal  remedy  very  popular  in  the 
  earlier  half  of  the  17th  century.  ``Dragon  water  may  do 
  good  upon  him.''  --Randolph  (1640). 
 
  {Flying  dragon},  a  large  meteoric  fireball;  a  bolide. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  dragon 
  n  1:  a  creature  of  Teutonic  mythology;  usually  represented  as 
  breathing  fire  and  having  a  reptilian  body  and  sometimes 
  wings  [syn:  {firedrake}] 
  2:  a  fiercely  vigilant  and  unpleasant  woman  [syn:  {tartar}] 
  3:  any  of  several  small  tropical  Asian  lizards  capable  of 
  gliding  by  spreading  winglike  membranes  on  each  side  of 
  the  body  [syn:  {flying  dragon},  {flying  lizard}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  dragon  n.  [MIT]  A  program  similar  to  a  {daemon},  except  that 
  it  is  not  invoked  at  all  but  is  instead  used  by  the  system  to  perform 
  various  secondary  tasks.  A  typical  example  would  be  an  accounting 
  program,  which  keeps  track  of  who  is  logged  in  accumulates  load-average 
  statistics,  etc  Under  ITS  many  terminals  displayed  a  list  of  people 
  logged  in  where  they  were  what  they  were  running,  etc.,  along  with 
  some  random  picture  (such  as  a  unicorn,  Snoopy,  or  the  Enterprise), 
  which  was  generated  by  the  `name  dragon'.  Usage:  rare  outside  MIT  -- 
  under  Unix  and  most  other  OSes  this  would  be  called  a  `background  demon' 
  or  {daemon}.  The  best-known  Unix  example  of  a  dragon  is  `cron(1)'. 
  At  SAIL,  they  called  this  sort  of  thing  a  `phantom'. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  DRAGON 
 
  1.  An  {Esprit}  project  aimed  at  providing  effective  support  to 
  {reuse}  in  {real-time}  distributed  {Ada}  {application 
  program}s. 
 
  2.  An  implementation  language  used  by  {BTI  Computer  Systems}. 
 
  E-mail:  Pat  Helland  . 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1994-12-08) 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  dragon 
 
  [MIT]  A  program  similar  to  a  {daemon},  except  that  it  is  not 
  invoked  at  all  but  is  instead  used  by  the  system  to  perform 
  various  secondary  tasks.  A  typical  example  would  be  an 
  accounting  program,  which  keeps  track  of  who  is  logged  in 
  accumulates  load-average  statistics,  etc  Under  ITS  many 
  terminals  displayed  a  list  of  people  logged  in  where  they 
  were  what  they  were  running,  etc.,  along  with  some  random 
  picture  (such  as  a  unicorn,  Snoopy  or  the  Enterprise),  which 
  was  generated  by  the  "name  dragon".  Use  is  rare  outside 
  {MIT},  under  {Unix}  and  most  other  {operating  system}s  this 
  would  be  called  a  "background  {demon}"  or  {daemon}.  The 
  best-known  Unix  example  of  a  dragon  is  {cron}.  At  {SAIL}, 
  they  called  this  sort  of  thing  a  "phantom". 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Dragon 
  (1.)  Heb.  tannim,  plural  of  tan.  The  name  of  some  unknown 
  creature  inhabiting  desert  places  and  ruins  (Job  30:29;  Ps 
  44:19;  Isa.  13:22;  34:13;  43:20;  Jer.  10:22;  Micah  1:8;  Mal. 
  1:3);  probably,  as  translated  in  the  Revised  Version,  the  jackal 
  (q.v.). 
 
  (2.)  Heb.  tannin.  Some  great  sea  monster  (Jer.  51:34).  In  Isa. 
  51:9  it  may  denote  the  crocodile.  In  Gen.  1:21  (Heb.  plural 
  tanninim)  the  Authorized  Version  renders  "whales,"  and  the 
  Revised  Version  "sea  monsters."  It  is  rendered  serpent"  in  Ex 
  7:9.  It  is  used  figuratively  in  Ps  74:13;  Ezek.  29:3. 
 
  In  the  New  Testament  the  word  dragon"  is  found  only  in  Rev. 
  12:3,  4,  7,  9,  16,  17,  etc.,  and  is  there  used  metaphorically  of 
  "Satan."  (See  {WHALE}.)




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