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VIOLIN.
3. A variety of organ-stop, rarc^,
1688 [see Viol si>.^ 3J.
4. aitrib. and Conth,, as violiit-boio, -case, class
family y etc; violin-maker^ -niakitig^ -player
violin hike, -s/iapeii adjs.
1858 SiMMONDS Diet. Trade^ *yu>lin'bh,
rhombic octahedrons.
t Viorne, Obs.~^ [a. F. viorne (16th c.) :—L.
vllmrna, pi. oi viburnum.'] The wayfaring-tree.
1637 Holland Camden's Brit. 421 inter vibuma Cupnssus,
that is, the Cypresse-lree amongst the Viorncs
[1610 among smal twigges].
Vipa*rlous, app. a mistake or misprint for
vivacious * tenacious of life ',
1849 LvTTON Caxtons XII. ii, .\ cat the most viparious is
limited to nine lives.
Viper (vai'pai). Also 6 vyper, vypar, vepor.
[a. OF. vipere^ vipre (mod.F. vipere,^ Vx. vipera,
vipra, vibra fem., vibre masc.,Sp.and 1'^. vibora^
It. vipera) or ad. L. vipera viper, snake, serpent,
contracted from vlvi-pera, f. vivus alive, living,
and parere to bring forth. See nlso Wiveb.]
1. The small ovo-viviparous snake Felias bents
(formerly Coluber berus or Vipera communis),
abundant in Europe and the only venomous snake
found in Great Britain ; the adder ; in general
use, any venomous, dangerous, or
or serpent.
repulsive snake
The flesh of the viper was formerly regarded as possessing
great nutritive or restorative properties, and was frequently
used medicinally.
1516 TiNDALK Acts xxviiu 3 When Paul had gaddered a
boundle of stickes. And putt thein into the fyre, a viper (be
cause off the heet) creept out. 154S Brinklow Lameut.
116 The vypar aboue all other ..serpentes is most fullest of
poyson. 1551 Turner //*; (^a/( 1 568) i.Bv,Garlyke..helpeth
tlie bytyng of a veper. 1583 Gbef.ne Mamiliia 1. Wks.
(Grosari) II. 74 The Elephant being enuenomed with the
Viper, eateth him vp, and is healed. 1616 Bullokar Eng.
Expos., Viper, a venemous serpent in some hot countries
lying much in the earth, hauingashort taile, which gratetli
and maketh a noise as he goeth. 1634 Pkacham Compl,
Gentl. (ed. 2) xii. 109 Some mortals also are kiiowne by their
cognisances, as. .Cleopatra by a viper. 1697 Dkvden Viig.
Georg. III. 629 With that rank Odour from thy Dwellingplace
To drive the Viper's Brood, and all the venom 'd Race.
1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. 67o«cs- 65 The proper virtue of
the Sicilian is, to subdue the poison of vipers. 1769 Pennant
Brit. Zool. III. 17 Vipers are found in many parts of
this island. 1805 Binglev Anim. Biog. (ed. 3) III. 95 The
Viper is the only one, either of the Reptile or Serpent tribes,
in Great Britain, from whose bite we have any thing to fear.
1857 Borrow Romany Rye App. ix. The duty of the true
critic is to play the part of a leech, and not of a viper.
trans/. EiTi^ Jig. 1535 Jove ApoL Tindale 24 .\t not these
the venomouse tethe of vepers that thus gnawe a nother
mannis name? 1555 Kuen Decades {Xrh.) 193 'these blind
and swalowyng sandes, the Spaniardes caule Vypers :
And
that by good reason, bycause in them many shyppes are
entangled. 1606 Shaks. Tr. 4- Cr. iii. i. m^ Hot bloud,
hot thoughts, and hot deedes, why they are Vipers, is Loue
a generation of Vipers? 1713 Waterland Serm. Assizes
Cambr. 13 Special care therefore must be taken to find out
this lurking Viper [sc. piidej in our Bosoms, and to cast it
far from us. 1819 Scorr Ivanhoe xxvii. Then comes remorse,
with all its vipers, mixed with vain regrets for the past.
b, ZooL Applied with distinguishing terms to
other species of the genus Vipera^ the sub-order
Viperina, or snakes resembling the common viper.
For Itomed, pit, red, sand, water, yellow viper, see those
terms.
1736 Mortimer in PhiL Trans. XXXIX. 25^ Vipera
fusca : the brown Viper in Virginia. In Carolina it is
called the Truncheon-Snake. xw Catesbv Nat. Hist.
Carolina (1771) II. 44 The Black Viper . . is short and thick,
of slow motion. Ibid, 45 The Brown Viper, .is. .in length
about two feet, and large in proportion. tj'jZ Encycl. Brit.
(ed. 2) III. 2t^/i The Vipera, or common viper of the
shops. . . It is a native of Egypt, and other warm countries.
180S Shaw Gen, ZooL III. n. 377 Egyptian Viper.
Ibid. 382 Swedish Viper. 1834 M^Muktbie C«2/iVrV^«/wi.
Kingd. 185 Viplera] brachyura, Cuv. (Ihe Minute Viper.)
1843 Penny CycL XXVI. 347/2 Variegated Viper—that
described by Mr. Bell from Hornsey Wood. 1845 Encycl.
Metrop.XA.y. 1099-1101 [Various species]. x86x Hulme
tr. Moguin-Tandon 11. v. i. 250 The Vipera Berus (DaudJ
or Small Viper (Coluber Ammodytes, Linn,). x88x Nosehorned
viper [see Viperling].
C. ZooL One or other of the snakes belonging
to the genus Vipera, of which the common viper
is the type, or to the family Viperidse.
The vipers were formerly classified (following Linnaeus)
under the order Coluber, from which they are now separated
(cf. quot. 1834). The Viperidae form one of the four families
into which the suborder Viperina (or Solenoglypha) is now
divided.
180S Shaw Gen. ZooL HI. ti. 364 The species (of Coluber]
differ greatly in size and habit, according to their respective
tribes; some, as the Vipers, having large, ftattish, and subcordate
heads, with rather short than long bodies and tails.
1834 McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 185 The vipers,
most of which were confounded with the Colubers by Linnffius,
on account of their double sub-caudal plates, require
to be separated from them from the circumstance of theuhaving
poisonous fangs, c x88a Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 311
The Vipers ( Viperida;)..hsiVfi a large broad hea