deaf adder

English

Alternative forms

• deaf-adder

Noun

deaf adder (plural deaf adders)

1. (Australia) death adder
   • 1828, Peter Miller Cunningham, Two Years in New South Wales, third edition, volume 1, London: Henry Colburn, page 319:

     Our deaf adder resembles, in its short, puffy, repulsive appearance, the blow-adder of America.

   • 1833, William Henry Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia, and Van Dieman's Land, During the Years 1830, 1831, 1832 and 1833, London: Richard Bentley, page 264:

     The death, or deaf adder, is an ugly creature, and is considered highly dangerous.

   • 1845, Clement Hodgkinson, Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, London: T. and W. Boone, page 212:

     The Death Adder is extremely sluggish in its habits, and rarely moves out of the way of persons approaching it; I am therefore inclined to think, that the original popular name assigned to this reptile, must have been Deaf Adder, instead of the Death Adder.

   • 1846, Christopher Pemberton Hodgson, Reminiscences of Australia, with Hints on the Squatter's Life, London: W. N. Wright; Simpkin and Marshall, page 169:

     Another friend on a cruise, put his saddle down for a pillow at night as usual, and on lifting up the saddle-flaps the next morning, he observed a beastly deaf adder lying flat down.

   • 1852, R. G. Jameson, Australia and Her Gold Regions, New York: Cornish, Lamport & Co., page 45:

     Snakes of various sizes, from two to ten feet in length, including, perhaps, the venomous deaf adder

   • 1853, Ellen Clacy, A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia, in 1852–53, London: Hurst and Blackett, page 250:

     The deaf adder is the most formidable “varmint” in Australia. There are two varieties; it is generally about two feet long. The bite is fatal. The deaf adder never moves unless it is touched, hence its name.

   • 1896, Baldwin Spencer, “Through Larapinta Land: A Narrative of the Horn Expeditoin to Central Australia”, in Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia, London, Melbourne: Dulau and Co.; Melville, Mullen and Slade, page 42:

     One day at Charlotte Waters, during my second visit, they brought in a specimen of what was evidently either the “deaf-adder” (Acanthophis antarctica) or another species of the same genus.

Derived terms

• Deaf Adder Creek
• Deaf Adder Gorge