dragon

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

• noun A mythical monster traditionally represented as a gigantic reptile having a long tail, sharp claws, scaly skin, and often wings.
• noun Any of various lizards, such as the Komodo dragon or the flying lizard.
• noun A fiercely vigilant or intractable person.
• noun Something very formidable or dangerous.
• noun Archaic A large snake or serpent.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A fabulous animal common to the conceptions of many primitive races and times, or, as in the Bible an indefinite creature of great size or fierceness.
• noun In zoöl.: A lizard of the genus Draco, specifically called the flying-dragon.
• noun Any one of the monitor-lizards.
• noun In ornithology, a kind of carrier-pigeon. Also called dragoon.
• noun A fierce, violent person, male or female; now, more generally (from the part of guardian often played by the dragon in mythology), a spiteful, watchful woman; a duenna.
• noun [capitalized] An ancient northern constellation, Draco.
• noun A short firearm used by dragoons in the seventeenth century, described as having a barrel 16 inches long, with a large bore.
• noun An old kind of standard or military ensign, so called because it was decorated with a dragon painted or embroidered upon it, or because it consisted (like the Anglo-Saxon standard at Hastings, as seen in the Bayeux tapestry) of a figure of a dragon carried upon a staff.
• noun A name given to various araceous plants, as in England to Arum maculatum; the brown dragon, Arisœma triphyllum; the green dragon, Dracunculus vulgaris, and in the United States Arisœma Dracontium; the female or water dragon, Calla palustris.
• noun In Scotland, a paper kite.
• noun See the extract.
• Pertaining to or resembling dragons; performed by dragons; fierce; formidable.
• noun The larva of a European notodontid moth, Hybocampa millhauseri, having remarkably angular outlines and conspicuous corners and humps, so that it resembles an oak-leaf curled and eaten by a tortricid larva.
• noun The hellgrammite fly, Corydalus cornutus.

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

• noun (Myth.) A fabulous animal, generally represented as a monstrous winged serpent or lizard, with a crested head and enormous claws, and regarded as very powerful and ferocious.
• noun A fierce, violent person, esp. a woman.
• noun (Astron.) A constellation of the northern hemisphere figured as a dragon; Draco.
• noun A luminous exhalation from marshy grounds, seeming to move through the air as a winged serpent.
• noun (Mil. Antiq.) A short musket hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt; -- so called from a representation of a dragon's head at the muzzle.
• noun (Zoöl.) A small arboreal lizard of the genus Draco, of several species, found in the East Indies and Southern Asia. Five or six of the hind ribs, on each side, are prolonged and covered with weblike skin, forming a sort of wing. These prolongations aid them in making long leaps from tree to tree. Called also flying lizard.
• noun (Zoöl.) A variety of carrier pigeon.
• noun (Her.) A fabulous winged creature, sometimes borne as a charge in a coat of arms.
• noun (Bot.) the name of several species of Arisæma, a genus of plants having a spathe and spadix. See Dragon root(below).
• noun (Zoöl.) the dragonet.
• noun (Zoöl.) any insect of the family Libellulidæ. They have finely formed, large and strongly reticulated wings, a large head with enormous eyes, and a long body; -- called also mosquito hawks. Their larvæ are aquatic and insectivorous.
• noun (Bot.) an American aroid plant (Arisæma Dracontium); green dragon.
• noun a resinous substance obtained from the fruit of several species of Calamus, esp. from Calamus Rotang and Calamus Draco, growing in the East Indies. A substance known as dragon's blood is obtained by exudation from Dracæna Draco; also from Pterocarpus Draco, a tree of the West Indies and South America. The color is red, or a dark brownish red, and it is used chiefly for coloring varnishes, marbles, etc. Called also Cinnabar Græcorum.
• noun (Bot.), (Astron.) The ascending node of a planet, indicated, chiefly in almanacs, by the symbol �. The deviation from the ecliptic made by a planet in passing from one node to the other seems, according to the fancy of some, to make a figure like that of a dragon, whose belly is where there is the greatest latitude; the intersections representing the head and tail; -- from which resemblance the denomination arises.
• noun (Zoöl.) a species of limpet.
• noun fossil stems whose leaf scars somewhat resemble the scales of reptiles; -- a name used by miners and quarrymen.
• noun (Astron.) the descending node of a planet, indicated by the symbol �. See Dragon's head (above).
• noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Artemisia (Artemisia dracunculus).
• noun (Bot.) a West African liliaceous tree (Dracæna Draco), yielding one of the resins called dragon's blood. See Dracæna.
• noun a medicinal remedy very popular in the earlier half of the 17th century.
• noun a large meteoric fireball; a bolide.

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

• noun A legendary, serpentine or reptilian creature.
• noun zoology An animal of various species that resemble a dragon in appearance:
• noun astronomy, with definite article, often capitalized The constellation Draco.
• noun pejorative An unpleasant woman; a harridan.
• noun with definite article, often capitalized The (historical) Chinese empire or the People's Republic of China.
• noun figuratively Something very formidable or dangerous.

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

• verb proceed for an extended period of time
• verb last unnecessarily long
• noun a faint constellation twisting around the north celestial pole and lying between Ursa Major and Cepheus