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Wuthering Heights vocabulary
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basilisk
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synonyms: cockatrice ???
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Definition:a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head. Described by Laurence Breiner as "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans", it was featured prominently in English thought and myth for centuries.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike---n. The cockatrice. A sort of serpent hatched form the egg of a cock. The basilisk had a bad eye, and its glance was fatal. Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Aurator saw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishment for having fatally gazed on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Juno afterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothing is so well attested by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk, but the cocks have stopped laying.Ambose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Ambrose Parey. The Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey (published: Latin in 1579, English in 1649), p.517
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Uses:
His forehead, that I once thought so manly, and that I now think so diabolical, was shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly quenched by sleeplessness,
Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights (1847)
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The basilisk stare was unwinking.
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
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A garland of grey hair on his comminated head see him me clambering down to the footpace (descende!), clutching a monstrance, basiliskeyed. Get down, baldpoll!
James Joyce. Ulysses
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