Constrictor

//kənˈstɹɪk.tə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    That which constricts or tightens:; A muscle whose contraction narrows a vessel or passage or compresses an organ.
  2. 2
    any of various large nonvenomous snakes that kill their prey by crushing it in its coils wordnet
  3. 3
    That which constricts or tightens:; A muscle whose contraction narrows a vessel or passage or compresses an organ.; Ellipsis of pharyngeal constrictor (“each of the muscles which constrict the pharynx”). abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
  4. 4
    That which constricts or tightens:; Ellipsis of boa constrictor, either the species Boa constrictor or a similar snake that kills by constriction. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

Synonyms

All synonyms
astringentclamppincerssnakestyptic

Example

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

Borrowed from New Latin cōnstrictor, or from constrict + -or.

Related phrases

constrictor knotboa constrictor

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.