MEDUSA • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Medusa

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/mədˈusə/ Listen

noun

Medusa n.

(Class. Myth.) The Gorgon; or one of the Gorgons whose hair was changed into serpents, after which all who looked upon her were turned into stone.

((pl. medusae)) (Zool.) Any free swimming acaleph; a jellyfish. Note: The larger medusae belong to the Discophora, and are sometimes called covered-eyed medusae; others, known as naked-eyed medusae, belong to the Hydroidea, and are usually developed by budding from hydroids. See Discophora, Hydroidea, and Hydromedusa.

Medusa bud (Zool.), one of the buds of a hydroid, destined to develop into a gonophore or medusa. See Athecata, and Gonotheca.

Medusa's head.

(a)

(Zool.) An astrophyton.

(b)

(Astron.) A cluster of stars in the constellation Perseus. It contains the bright star Algol.

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Etymology of 'Medusa'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Medusa" Quotes from Famous Books

... made a miscalculation, when he thought that Mr. Fabian would fall into the hands of the Medusa within the bed-curtains. The very thought of the humiliation he had undergone, and the fear of what was yet in store for him, inspired Mr. Fabian with an unusual degree of courage or rather drove ...

— The Home in the Valley • Emilie F. Carlen

... sacrilege beyond report! For Rome still flays and sells him at the court, Where paths are closed to virtue's fair increase. Now were fit time for me to scrape a treasure! Seeing that work and gain are gone; while he Who wears the robe, is my Medusa still. God welcomes poverty perchance with pleasure: But of that better life what hope have we, When the blessed banner leads to ...

— Sonnets • Michael Angelo Buonarroti & Tommaso Campanella

... were off from the Sandwich Islands to the long swell of the Pacific, the slimy medusa lights covering the waters with a phosphorescent trail of fire all night, the rockweed and sea leek floating past by day telling their tale of some far land. Cook's secret commission had been very explicit: ...

— Vikings of the Pacific - The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward • Agnes C. Laut

... with it is Girodet's ghastly "Deluge," and Gericault's dismal "Medusa." Gericault died, they say, for want of fame. He was a man who possessed a considerable fortune of his own; but pined because no one in his day would purchase his pictures, and so acknowledge his talent. At present, a scrawl ...

— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

... journey—the light pursuing and scattering the darkness; the glittering hero, borne by the mystic sandals of Hermes, bearing the sword of the sunlight, piercing the twilight or gloaming in the land of the mystic Graiae; slaying Medusa, the solemn star-lit night; destroying the dark dragon, and setting free Andromeda the dawn-maiden; and doing many wonders more. Or in Hermes we might trace out the Master Thief of Teutonic, and Scandinavian, and Hindu legends; or in Herakles, the type ...

— Fairy Tales; Their Origin and Meaning • John Thackray Bunce

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