dragon

plural dragons · alternative childish pronunciation spelling dwagon

1. A mythical reptilian or serpentine creature.
   1. In European mythologies, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a lizard-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.

      They pitched the dragon / over the cliff-top, let tide's flow / and backwash take the treasure-minder.

      1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 98

      3 more examples

      Medea for the loue of Iaſon, taught him how to tame the fire breathing braſſ feeted Bulls, and kill the mighty dragon that kept the golden fleece[.]

      1632, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cryps, page 548

      But as every well-brought-up prince was expected to kill a dragon, and rescue a princess, the dragons grew fewer and fewer till it was often quite hard for a princess to find a dragon to be rescued from.

      c. 1900, Edith Nesbit, The Last of the Dragons

      Before daylight, when the dragon flew home to sleep, he had burned up the hall and even the throne of the Geatish king.

      1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 41

      Synonyms: drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy

   2. In Eastern Asian mythologies, a large, snake-like monster with the eyes of a hare, the horns of a stag and the claws of a tiger, usually beneficent.

      These tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely with those of another.

      1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter XIII, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

      Synonyms: drake, lindworm, worm, wyrm, wyvern, derg, drag, draggy

2. An animal of various species that resemble a dragon in appearance:
   1. obsoleteA very large snake; a python.
   2. Any of various agamid lizards of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona.
   3. A Komodo dragon.
   4. A sea dragon.
3. capitalizedoftenwith definite articleastronomyThe constellation Draco.

   My father compounded with my mother vnder the Dragons taile, and my nativity was vnder Vrsa Maior.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

4. derogatoryA fierce and unpleasant woman.

   She’s a bit of a dragon.

   Synonyms: dragon lady, harridan, battle axe, bitch, brim, brimstone, cat, cockatrice

5. UKderogatoryrareslangAn unattractive woman.
6. capitalizedoftenwith definite articleThe (historical) Chinese empire or the People's Republic of China.

   Napoleon already warned of the awakening of the Dragon.

7. figurativelySomething very formidable or dangerous.
8. board gamesA class of playing tiles consisting of three types: white dragons, green dragons, and red dragons.
9. A luminous exhalation from marshy ground, seeming to move through the air like a winged serpent.
10. historicalengineeringA type of musket with a short, large-calibre barrel with a flared muzzle, often hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt.

    our dragoons were so denominated because they were armed with dragons, that is, with short muskets, which spouted fire like dragons, and had the head of a dragon wrought upon their muzzle

    1886, Charles Gould, Mythical Monsters

    Synonyms: dragoon

11. rarecomputingA background process similar to a daemon.

    Many of the postmaster functions are actually handled by computer software such as dragons and mailer daemons.

    2018, J. K. Petersen, Fiber Optics Illustrated Dictionary

    1 more example

    Daemons and Dragons. The print spooler is an example of a DAEMON, a program that executes in the background and provides a service […] Strictly speaking, a dragon is a daemon that is not invoked explicitly but is always there, waiting in the background […]

    1995, Harley Hahn, The UNIX Companion, page 420

12. A variety of carrier pigeon.

plural dragons · alternative childish pronunciation spelling dwagon

1. slangSynonym of drag queen.

   Yes. Butt shots. Everybody can't afford lipo and fat transfers. Especially dragons. So if they want to pay me top dollar to pump their ass up that's what I'm gonna do, and you've benefited from it.

   December 2017 Miss Lawrence as Miss Bruce, "Climax" Star episode 21

   2 more examples

   May 2017 Michael Connelly shares excerpt from The Late Show Ballard felt her phone vibrate in her hand and turned away from the nurse. She saw a return text from Mendez. She read his answer out loud to Jenkins. “‘Ramona Ramone, dragon. Real name Ramón Gutierrez. Had him in here a couple weeks back. Priors longer than his pre-op dick.’ Nice way of putting it.” “Considering his own dimensions,” Jenkins said. Drag queens, cross-dressers, and transgenders were all generally referred to as dragons in vice. No distinctions were made. It wasn’t nice but it was accepted.

   October 2017 Drag Star VIZIN is back with new single Blasting News My favorite part was probably the ‘de-dragging.’ Taking the Dragon off (that’s what I call her) is always my favorite. In all honesty, the entire experience was amazing and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Being felt up by Michael Silas wasn’t bad either...

   Synonyms: drag queen

1. The fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
2. Synonym of Devil.

   Synonyms: Great Red Dragon, Aduwallah, Adversary, Al-Shaytaan, Antichrist, archfiend, Ash-Shaytan, Azazel