Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Greek & Roman Mythology Any of numerous minor deities represented as beautiful maidens inhabiting and sometimes personifying features of nature such as trees, waters, and mountains.
- noun A sexually mature and attractive young woman.
- noun The immature form of an insect, such as a grasshopper, that does not pass through a pupal stage during metamorphosis. Nymphs resemble adults but are smaller and lack fully developed wings.
- noun The eight-legged immature form of certain arachnids, such as ticks and mites.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In insects which undergo an incomplete metamorphosis, the stage in which the wing-pads appear.
- noun In mythology, one of a numerous class of inferior divinities, imagined as beautiful maidens, eternally young, who were considered as tutelary spirits of certain localities and objects, or of certain races and families, and whose existence depended upon that of the things with which they were identified.
- noun Hence, a young and attractive woman; a maiden; a damsel.
- noun In entomology, the third stage of an insect's transformation, intervening between the larva and the imago; a pupa; a chrysalis; a nympha. See cuts under
Termes and Nysius.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Class. Myth.) A goddess of the mountains, forests, meadows, or waters.
- noun A lovely young girl; a maiden; a damsel.
- noun (Zoöl.) The pupa of an insect; a chrysalis.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of a subfamily (Najades) of butterflies including the purples, the fritillaries, the peacock butterfly, etc.; -- called also
naiad .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
larva of certaininsects . - noun Greek & Roman mythology Any
minor female deity associated withwater ,forests ,grotto , etc. - noun A
young girl , especially one whoinspires lustful feelings .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a voluptuously beautiful young woman
- noun (classical mythology) a minor nature goddess usually depicted as a beautiful maiden
- noun a larva of an insect with incomplete metamorphosis (as the dragonfly or mayfly)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word nymph.
Examples
-
The term nymphæ was first applied in the modern sense, according to Bergh, in 1599, by Pinæus, mainly from the influence of these structures on the urinary stream, and he dilated in his _De Virginitate_ on the suitability of the term to designate so poetic
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy Havelock Ellis 1899
-
Oh, to be a mangrove nymph is to be of both worlds and neither; oh, how I wished I had been born an ash or yew, oak or maple, and not to suffer these longings!
Valentines, part the first mllelaurel 2009
-
As he carefully selects a nymph from the rim of his hat, he listens to the stream rushing by him, calling him to wade through her waters and cast his line.
-
Mercer's Poxyback Baetis nymph is a great imitation of the midget bluewing olive mayflies that hatch in most areas in August.
10 Tactics For Catching Late-Summer, Low-Water Trout on Small Flies 2007
-
In its landward migration, the dragon nymph is strictly a pedestrian.
How to Catch Trout on a Fly Rod with Dragon- and Damselfly Imitations 2006
-
This morning, however, I have performed something of a feat, for I have gone down to Brunnen on foot and by what may be called the back staircase on the mountain, literally the dry bed of an Alpine torrent, fifteen hundred feet down the steepest possible hillside, by the irregular broken rocky steps of the mountain nymph – leaps and plunges.
-
I only want you to know how the word nymph is used, so that when you see it in reading about insects you will know what it means.
The Insect Folk Margaret Warner Morley 1890
-
[25] The word nymph itself means "cloud-maiden," as is illustrated by the kinship between the Greek and the Latin nubes.
Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology 1872
-
During spring and summer more people are active outdoor, and at the same time many black-legged ticks are in a growth stage called a nymph, which is tiny and hard to see.
RutlandHerald.com 2010
-
Rae looked like a wood nymph from the forest where angels grow, Kara was on the express train to blah town, Erin modeled really well but was too cold for Tyra’s liking, and Nicole apparently had “Gollum hands.”
'America's Next Top Model' recap: The not-amazing race | EW.com 2009
yo commented on the word nymph
yo
July 8, 2009
bilby commented on the word nymph
Yo, yo.
July 8, 2009
yo commented on the word nymph
nymphyomania. (i know...just a hello yo. hey bilby. just sayin.)
July 9, 2009
yo commented on the word nymph
(keep playin.)
July 9, 2009
bilby commented on the word nymph
*waves*
July 17, 2009