serpent

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

• noun Zoology A snake.
• noun In the Bible, the creature that tempted Eve, identified in Christian tradition with Satan.
• noun A subtle, sly, or treacherous person.
• noun A firework that writhes while burning.
• noun Music A deep-voiced wind instrument of serpentine shape, used principally from the 1600s to the 1800s, about 2.5 meters (8 feet) in length and made of brass or wood.
• noun Serpens.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To wind along like a snake, as a river; take or have a serpentine course; meander.
• To entwine; girdle as with the coils of a serpent.
• Crawling on the belly, as a snake, or reptant, as an ophidian; of or pertaining to the Serpentia: correlated with salient and gradient.
• Having the form or nature of a serpent; of a kind similar to that which a serpent has or might have.
• Serpentine; winding; tortuous.
• noun A scaly creature that crawls on the belly; a limbless reptile; properly, a snake; any member of the order Ophidia (which see for technical characters).
• noun [capitalized] In astronomy, a constellation in the northern hemisphere. See Ophiuchus.
• noun A musical instrument, properly of the trumpet family, having a cupped mouthpiece, a conical wooden tube bent to and fro several times and usually covered with leather, and nine fingerholes very irregularly disposed.
• noun In organ-building, a reed-stop similar to the trombone.
• noun Figuratively, a person who in looks or ways suggests a serpent; a wily, treacherous person; rarely, a fatally fascinating person.
• noun A kind of firework which burns with a zigzag, serpentine motion or light.
• noun In firearms, same as serpentin.

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

• transitive verb rare To wind; to encircle.
• intransitive verb rare To wind like a serpent; to crook about; to meander.
• noun (Zoöl.) Any reptile of the order Ophidia; a snake, especially a large snake. See Illust. under ophidia.
• noun Fig.: A subtle, treacherous, malicious person.
• noun A species of firework having a serpentine motion as it passess through the air or along the ground.
• noun (Astron.) The constellation Serpens.
• noun (Mus.) A bass wind instrument, of a loud and coarse tone, formerly much used in military bands, and sometimes introduced into the orchestra; -- so called from its form.
• noun (Chem.) mercuric sulphocyanate, a combustible white substance which in burning gives off a poisonous vapor and leaves a peculiar brown voluminous residue which is expelled in a serpentine from. It is employed as a scientific toy.
• noun (Bot.) the long, slender, serpentine fruit of the cucurbitaceous plant Trichosanthes colubrina; also, the plant itself.
• noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of raptorial birds of the genera Circaëtus and Spilornis, which prey on serpents. They inhabit Africa, Southern Europe, and India. The European serpent eagle is Circaëtus Gallicus.
• noun (Zoöl.) An Asiatic antelope; the markhoor.
• noun (Zoöl.) a fish (Cepola rubescens) with a long, thin, compressed body, and a band of red running lengthwise.
• noun (Zoöl.) an ophiuran; a brittle star.
• noun (Paleon.) the fossil tooth of a shark; -- so called from its resemblance to a tongue with its root.
• noun (Bot.) a West Indian climbing plant (Aristolochia odoratissima).
• noun (Zoöl.) any species of African serpents belonging to the family Dendrophidæ.

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

• noun A snake.
• noun music An obsolete wind instrument in the brass family, whose shape is suggestive of a snake (Wikipedia article).
• verb obsolete To wind; to encircle.

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

• noun limbless scaly elongate reptile; some are venomous
• noun an obsolete bass cornet; resembles a snake
• noun a firework that moves in serpentine manner when ignited