Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several venomous snakes, especially the viper Vipera aspis of southern Europe, the cobra Naja haje of Africa and the Middle East, or the horned viper.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A very venomous serpent of Egypt, celebrated in connection with the story of Cleopatra's suicide.
  • noun The common viper or adder of Europe, a feebly poisonous serpent, formerly named Vipera communis, now Pelias berus, of the family Viperidæ. See cut under adder.
  • noun A name of sundry other poisonous serpents.
  • noun Aspic and aspick are obsolete or poetic forms.
  • noun A European tree of the poplar family, Populus tremula.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) Same as aspen.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A small, hooded, poisonous serpent of Egypt and adjacent countries, whose bite is often fatal. It is the Naja haje. The name is also applied to other poisonous serpents, esp. to Vipera aspis of southern Europe. See haje.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic A water snake.
  • noun A venomous viper native to southwestern Europe (Vipera aspis).
  • noun The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje)
  • noun A type of European fish (Aspius aspius).
  • noun An aspen tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun of southern Europe; similar to but smaller than the adder
  • noun cobra used by the Pharaohs as a symbol of their power over life and death

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aspis, from Latin, from Greek.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • The asp is a serpent that avoids the enchantment of music by pressing one ear against the ground and plugging the other ear with its tail. In some versions the asp guards a tree that drips balm; to get the balm men must first put the asp to sleep by playing or singing to it. Another version holds that the asp has a precious stone called a carbuncle in its head, and the enchanter must say certain words to the asp to obtain the stone.

    October 12, 2008

  • “Another law enforcement official said that investigators with a search warrant seized a retractable baton — called an asp — and a radio antenna from Officer Cruz’s locker.�?

    The New York Times, Police Accuser Still in Hospital; Sharpton Visits, by Al Baker, Kareem Fahim and William K. Rashbaum, October 25, 2008

    October 26, 2008

  • ASP: the asp has a strategy, to avoid enchantment by songs meant to lure it forth from its cavern, by pressing one ear to the ground and stopping the other with its tail. This same asp guards the tree from which balm drips, and if a man tries to steal the balm, he must first put the asp to sleep by means of instruments - that is, by music. Bruneta Latini says the asp carries a precious stone called the carbuncle which enchanters hope to obtain by saying certain words, but the asp deafens itself and defeats them; this stone is the dracontis or dragon stone described by Pliny and Solinus, which in two medieval lapidaries is identified with the carbuncle.

    There are many kinds of asps. The first is the dipsas, which is so small it is not seen when trodden upon, and its bite kills before it is felt; its bite causes men to die of thirst. The next is hypnalis, called the prialis, which is the serpent from which Cleopatra got her death; it kills by sleep. The third is the haemorrhois: after the bite of this asp one sweats blood in such a way that life itself pours out through the veins. The fourth is the prester asp, which runs with its mouth open and steaming; its bite causes such swelling that the victim dies because putrefaction sets in. And the last is the seps, by the bite of which the whole body is consumed.

    January 12, 2009

  • Also, application service provider

    March 27, 2009

  • or the programming language developed by Microsoft

    March 27, 2009