boa constrictor

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See also: Boa constrictor

English

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 boa constrictor on Wikipedia

Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from New Latin Boa constrictor.

Noun

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boa constrictor (plural boa constrictors)

  1. A large tropical American snake, Boa constrictor, that kills its prey by squeezing them.
  2. (loosely) Any large python.
    • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 95:
      We found boa constrictors or pythons, whip snakes, the handsome but deadly tiger snake, so called from the peculiar marks on its skin[.]

Usage notes

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  • The boa constrictor is the only extant animal whose English common name is the same as its scientific (taxonomic) name. Tyrannosaurus rex, an extinct species, also shares this phenomenon.

Translations

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