rattlesnake

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of several venomous American pit vipers with interlocking horny segments at the tail tip that produce a rattling warning sound

   The rattlesnake raised its head and rattled before retreating beneath a rock.

A transparent compound of rattle + snake, named for the warning sound made when specialized hollow segments at the end of the tail strike one another. English speakers applied the name to these American snakes in the seventeenth century.

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