any plant belonging to the genus Antirrhinum, of the figwort family, especially A. majus, cultivated for its spikes of showy flowers, each having a corolla supposed to resemble the mouth of a dragon.
Also called: antirrhinum any of several scrophulariaceous chiefly Old World plants of the genus Antirrhinum, esp A. majus, of the Mediterranean region, having spikes of showy white, yellow, pink, red, or purplish flowers
[C16: so named because the flowers, which are claimed to look like a dragon's head, have a ``mouth'' which snaps shut if squeezed open and then released]