Molossian
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A member of the ancient Epirote ethnos which Olympias came from.
- 2 A breed of large dog of classical antiquity native to Epirus, resembling a mastiff and used as a hunting dog and guard dog.
"But meanwhile a new grating was opened, and into the arena rushed, with mad speed and barking, whole packs of dogs,—gigantic, yellow Molossians from the Peloponnesus, pied dogs from the Pyrenees, and wolf-like hounds from Hibernia, purposely famished; their sides were lank, and their eyes bloodshot."
- 1 Of or relating to Molossia or Molossians.
Example
More examples"But meanwhile a new grating was opened, and into the arena rushed, with mad speed and barking, whole packs of dogs,—gigantic, yellow Molossians from the Peloponnesus, pied dogs from the Pyrenees, and wolf-like hounds from Hibernia, purposely famished; their sides were lank, and their eyes bloodshot."
Etymology
From Molossia + -n.
More for "molossian"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.