basilisk

What it means

1. artsA mythical snake-like dragon, so venomous that even its gaze is deadly.

   the deadly look of the basilisk

   3 more examples

   The queſtion is in vvhat part of this Serpent the poyſon doth lye; Some ſay in the head alone, and that therefore the Bazeliske is deafe, bycauſe the Ayre vvhich ſerueth the Organe of hearing, is reſolued by the intenſiue calidity: but this ſeemeth not to bee true, […]

   1608, Edward Topsell, “Of the Cockatrice”, in The Historie of Serpents. Or, The Second Booke of Liuing Creatures: […], London: […] William Jaggard, →OCLC, page 124

   And without more ado she […] fixed her wonderful eyes upon me - more deadly than any Basilisk's - and pierced me through and through with their beauty, and sent her light laugh ringing through the air like chimes of silver bells.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   As a revolutionary act of prophecy in an age of political science, Wissenkunst is a unique and anarchic expression of freedom, and not a new and aspiring system of indoctrination. If Wissenkunst is itself turned into political apologetics, then the fabulous plumed serpent is turned into a monster, a basilisk.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 249

   Synonyms: cockatrice

2. governmentA type of dragon used in heraldry.
3. Any tree-dwelling lizard of the genus Basiliscus: the basilisk lizard.

   As a guide to start your collection we'd suggest either iguanas, tejus, swifts, basilisks, horned toads or alligator lizards.

   1965 March, Boys' Life, page 52

In a sentence

the deadly look of the basilisk

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekβασιλίσκος
2. Latinbasiliscus
3. Old Frenchbasilique
4. Middle Englishbasilicke
5. Englishbasilisk

From Middle English basilicke, borrowed from Old French basilique, from Latin basiliscus, from Ancient Greek βασιλίσκος (basilískos, literally “minor king or chieftain”), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”), possibly based on descriptions or rare encounters with different types of cobra which have crown-like patterns on their head; the 'deadly gaze' may have been from the spitting cobra's ability to spit venom into the eyes of predators or prey from a distance. The infohazard sense is a figurative reference to the deadly gaze of the mythical creature. Displaced native Old English fāgwyrm.