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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dra·co 2       (drā'kō)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A constellation in the polar region of the Northern Hemisphere near Cepheus and Ursa Major. Also called Dragon. [Latin dracō, dragon; see dragon.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

drag·on       (drāg'ən)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A mythical monster traditionally represented as a gigantic reptile having a lion's claws, the tail of a serpent, wings, and a scaly skin. A fiercely vigilant or intractable person. Something very formidable or dangerous. Any of various lizards, such as the Komodo dragon or the flying lizard. Archaic A large snake or serpent. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dracō, dracōn-, large serpent, from Greek drakōn; see derk- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Drag·on       (drāg'ən)  Pronunciation Key  n.   See Draco2.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
dragon 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

dragon
noun
1.	a creature of Teutonic mythology; usually represented as breathing fire and having a reptilian body and sometimes wings
2.	a fiercely vigilant and unpleasant woman
3.	a faint constellation twisting around the north celestial pole and lying between Ursa Major and Cepheus [syn: Draco]
4.	any of several small tropical Asian lizards capable of gliding by spreading winglike membranes on each side of the body

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

DRAGON
1. An Esprit project aimed at providing effective support to reuse in real-time distributed Ada application programs.
2. An implementation language used by BTI Computer Systems.
E-mail: Pat Helland .
[The Jargon File]
(1994-12-08)

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

dragon
[MIT] A program similar to a daemon, except that it is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to perform various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accounting program, which keeps track of who is logged in, accumulates load-average statistics, etc. Under ITS, many terminals displayed a list of people logged in, where they were, what they were running, etc., along with some random picture (such as a unicorn, Snoopy or the Enterprise), which was generated by the "name dragon". Use is rare outside MIT, under Unix and most other operating systems this would be called a "background demon" or daemon. The best-known Unix example of a dragon is cron. At SAIL, they called this sort of thing a "phantom".
[The Jargon File]

Jargon File - Cite This Source - Share This

dragon

n. [MIT] A program similar to a daemon, except that it is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to perform various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accounting program, which keeps track of who is logged in, accumulates load-average statistics, etc. Under ITS, many terminals displayed a list of people logged in, where they were, what they were running, etc., along with some random picture (such as a unicorn, Snoopy, or the Enterprise), which was generated by the `name dragon'. Usage: rare outside MIT -- under Unix and most other OSes this would be called a `background demon' or daemon. The best-known Unix example of a dragon is `cron(1)'. At SAIL, they called this sort of thing a `phantom'.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dragon

Drag"on\, n. [F. dragon, L. draco, fr. Gr. ?, prob. fr. ?, ?, to look (akin to Skr. dar? to see), and so called from its terrible eyes. Cf. Drake a dragon, Dragoon.]

1. (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.

The dragons which appear in early paintings and sculptures are invariably representations of a winged crocodile. --Fairholt.

Note: In Scripture the term dragon refers to any great monster, whether of the land or sea, usually to some kind of serpent or reptile, sometimes to land serpents of a powerful and deadly kind. It is also applied metaphorically to Satan.

Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. -- Ps. lxxiv. 13.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. -- Ps. xci. 13.

He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. --Rev. xx. 2.

2. A fierce, violent person, esp. a woman. --Johnson.

3. (Astron.) A constellation of the northern hemisphere figured as a dragon; Draco.

4. A luminous exhalation from marshy grounds, seeming to move through the air as a winged serpent.

5. (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. --Fairholt.

6. (Zo["o]l.) 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.

7. (Zo["o]l.) A variety of carrier pigeon.

8. (Her.) A fabulous winged creature, sometimes borne as a charge in a coat of arms.

Note: Dragon is often used adjectively, or in combination, in the sense of relating to, resembling, or characteristic of, a dragon.

Dragon arum (Bot.), the name of several species of Aris[ae]ma, a genus of plants having a spathe and spadix. See Dragon root(below).

Dragon fish (Zo["o]l.), the dragonet.

Dragon fly (Zo["o]l.), any insect of the family Libellulid[ae]. They have finely formed, large and strongly reticulated wings, a large head with enormous eyes, and a long body; -- called also mosquito hawks. Their larv[ae] are aquatic and insectivorous.

Dragon root (Bot.), an American aroid plant (Aris[ae]ma Dracontium); green dragon.

Dragon's blood, a resinous substance obtained from the fruit of several species of Calamus, esp. from C. Rotang and C. Draco, growing in the East Indies. A substance known as dragon's blood is obtained by exudation from Drac[ae]na 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 Gr[ae]corum.

Dragon's head. (a) (Bot.) A plant of several species of the genus Dracocephalum. They are perennial herbs closely allied to the common catnip. (b) (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. --Encyc. Brit.

Dragon shell (Zo["o]l.), a species of limpet.

Dragon's skin, fossil stems whose leaf scars somewhat resemble the scales of reptiles; -- a name used by miners and quarrymen. --Stormonth.

Dragon's tail (Astron.), the descending node of a planet, indicated by the symbol ?. See Dragon's head (above).

Dragon's wort (Bot.), a plant of the genus Artemisia (A. dracunculus).

Dragon tree (Bot.), a West African liliaceous tree (Drac[ae]na Draco), yielding one of the resins called dragon's blood. See Drac[ae]na.

Dragon water, a medicinal remedy very popular in the earlier half of the 17th century. "Dragon water may do good upon him." --Randolph (1640).

Flying dragon, a large meteoric fireball; a bolide.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Dragon

(1.) Heb. tannim, plural of tan. The name of some unknown creature inhabiting desert places and ruins (Job 30:29; Ps. 44:19; Isa. 13:22; 34:13; 43:20; Jer. 10:22; Micah 1:8; Mal. 1:3); probably, as translated in the Revised Version, the jackal (q.v.). (2.) Heb. tannin. Some great sea monster (Jer. 51:34). In Isa. 51:9 it may denote the crocodile. In Gen. 1:21 (Heb. plural tanninim) the Authorized Version renders "whales," and the Revised Version "sea monsters." It is rendered "serpent" in Ex. 7:9. It is used figuratively in Ps. 74:13; Ezek. 29:3. In the New Testament the word "dragon" is found only in Rev. 12:3, 4, 7, 9, 16, 17, etc., and is there used metaphorically of "Satan." (See WHALE.)