Lexic.us

Definition of Chimera

1. Noun. (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon.

Definition of Chimera

1. n. A monster represented as vomiting flames, and as having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.

Definition of Chimera

1. Proper noun. (Greek mythology) A mythical monster represented as vomiting flames, and as having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. ¹

2. Noun. (mythology) Chimera, or any fabulous creature with parts from different animals. ¹

3. Noun. A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination; as, the chimera of an author. ¹

4. Noun. (genetics) An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two zygotes. ¹

5. Noun. (architecture) A gargoyle (fictional winged creature) ¹

6. Noun. (usually ''chimaera'') A cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Chimera

1. an imaginary monster [n -S]

Medical Definition of Chimera

1. Organism composed of two genetically distinct types of cells. Can be formed by the fusion of two early blastula stage embryos or by the reconstitution of the bone marrow in an irradiated recipient or by somatic segregation. (05 Jan 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Chimera

Literary usage of Chimera

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Pastels in Prose by Stuart Merrill, William Dean Howells (1890)
"EVERY ONE HIS OWN chimera. a great gray sky, in a great powdery plain ... Each one bore upon his back an enormous chimera, as heavy as a bag of flour or ..."

2. Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art with Special Reference to Their Use by John Vinycomb (1906)
"The chimera AN imaginary fire-breathing monster of great swiftness and ... The origin of the story of the chimera is ascribed to a mountain in Lycia which ..."

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