rat snake
any of several New and Old World colubrid snakes, of the genus Elaphe, that feed chiefly on small mammals and birds.
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Origin of rat snake
1- Also called house snake.
Words Nearby rat snake
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use rat snake in a sentence
All the roofs of the thatched bungalows swarm with rats, and in every house is kept a rat-snake, which kills and eats these rats.
A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' | Annie Allnut BrasseyA friend informs us that he once saw in these gardens a rat-snake of Ceylon devour a common Coluber natrix.
Curiosities of Civilization | Andrew WynterThere is a belief in Ceylon that the bite of the rat-snake, though harmless to man, is fatal to black cattle.
Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon | J. Emerson TennentA person should postpone an errand on which he is starting, if he sees a cobra or rat-snake.
Omens and Superstitions of Southern India | Edgar ThurstonOne the great serpent would select, would lap in scaly coils, crush to a red pulp and swallow as a rat-snake swallows a mouse.
The Hour of the Dragon | Robert E. Howard
British Dictionary definitions for rat snake
any of various nonvenomous rodent-eating colubrid snakes, such as Elaphe obsoleta of North America and Ptyas mucosus of Asia
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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