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deaf adder. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Alternative forms
Noun
deaf adder (plural deaf adders)
- (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