Boa
/ˈboʊ.ə/ noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of a group of large American snakes, of the genus Boa, subfamily Boinae, or family Boidae, including the boa constrictor and the emperor boa of Mexico.
- 2 A member of a Bwa-speaking ethnic group of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 3 Abbreviation of basin of attraction; the gravitational center of a supercluster of galaxies; a Great Attractor. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, initialism
- 4 any of several chiefly tropical constrictors with vestigial hind limbs wordnet
- 5 A type of long scarf; typically made from synthetic or real feathers (or occasionally fur), and usually worn by being draped across the shoulders with the ends hanging low, sometimes also with a loop around the neck.
"Do not take up your boa as if it were the rope with which you meant to hang yourself; nor wrap your shawl round you as if it were your shroud."
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- 6 a long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"She was a tiny girl, but she really held her own on the baritone sax. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but imagine the thing wrapping itself around her and devouring her like a boa constrictor."
Etymology
From Middle English boa, from Latin boa (“large snake”), a species of serpent mentioned in Pliny's Naturalis Historia (Natural History). The scarf was named attributively, for its resemblance to the snake when worn.