fang1
/faŋ
/
noun
1A large sharp tooth, especially a canine tooth of a dog or wolf: the dog was bounding towards him, its fangs bared...
- I looked under and behind me to see the wolf flash its fangs and sharp teeth at me, giving another howl.
- The white dragon took a few bold steps towards him and bared its sharp fangs.
- As the wolf drew nearer, fangs bared ready to pounce, I closed my eyes and waited for the wolf to hit…
1.1The tooth of a venomous snake, by which poison is injected: the snake buries its fangs in its victim’s neck...
- The snake had dislodged its fangs, slithering after her with sureness of the ground it moved upon, then climbed up a tree.
- But before the snake demon's fangs could get in too deep, it collapsed, headless.
- No slow toxin drips from the fangs of a jungle snake; already the mouse is being digested before it is even swallowed.
1.2The biting mouthpart of a spider: the spider kills its victims with venomous fangs...
- I even had to clean behind the dreaded tank-and if you were a spider with big drippy fangs and fuzzy legs, where do you think you would hide?
- Venom injected via a spider's fangs acts in various other ways, such as to kill or immobilize prey and to begin the process of digesting its meal.
- The spiders have very large fangs and it causes considerable pain when it bites and it'll leave obvious fang marks that will usually bleed at the time.
Derivatives
fanged
/ adjective ...- With its body obscured by murky waters, an ancient fanged reptile may have used its long neck to lunge at fish and squid.
- With visions of poisonous spiders and fanged monsters lurking in hollow trees creeping around in my brain, I tentatively put my hand into the hole.
- The jaw line was drastically altered; canines now were substituted with long fanged teeth.
fangless
- Flightless, fangless, clawless, slow, and weak, he isn't physically prepossessing.
- It has its moments, but considering its pedigree it comes off as a fangless, flashy disappointment.
- I flashed my biggest, goofiest smile to reassure her that I was fangless.
Origin
Late Old English (denoting booty or spoils), from Old Norse fang 'capture, grasp'; compare with vang. A sense 'trap, snare' is recorded from the mid 16th century; both this and the original sense survive in Scots. The current sense (also mid 16th century) reflects the same notion of 'something that catches and holds'.
Fang first meant booty or spoils. It comes from Old Norse fang ‘to capture, grasp’. A sense ‘trap, snare’ is recorded from the mid 16th century; both this and the original sense survive in Scots. The current sense ‘large, sharp tooth’ (also mid 16th) reflects the same notion of ‘something that catches and holds’.
Rhymes
fang2
/faŋ/Australian informal
verb
Drive at high speed: [no object]: let’s fang up to the beach!...
- The front of his car is completely bent from where he fanged it into the gutter.
- Handling is pretty well neutral for a front-wheel-drive car, though those models aren't really intended to be fanged along as understeer will eventually enter the equation.
- Our family car was a 1959 FC Holden station wagon which dad always insisted on driving well below the speed limit, while my mum fanged around in a Hillman Hunter.
noun
A high-speed drive in a car.By heck, all that noise, power and speed puts you in the mood for a fang in a red sporty jobbie......
- Apparently this guy had a Jag XJ220 Supercar being serviced somewhere and the mechanic took it for a fang out to West Head years ago when it was in for service, crashed it and nearly wrote it off.
Origin
1960s: from the name of J. M. Fangio (see Fangio, Juan Manuel).
Fang3
/faŋ/(also Fan)
noun (plural same or Fangs)
1A member of a people inhabiting parts of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.Like most of the Bantu people, the Fangs belong to the Congo racial type of the Black African race, with some Sudanese contributions....
- The Fang migrated into their current area from the northeast in recent centuries as small groups or families of nomadic agriculturalists.
2 [mass noun] The Bantu language of the Fang, with over 500,000 speakers.Most people's daily lives are conducted in tribal languages, either Fang, Bubi, or Ibo, all of which are in the Bantu family of languages....
- Fang is the major language of three countries on the west coast of Africa. It is spoken in southern Cameroon by about 1½ million people.
adjective
Relating to the Fang or their language.The harmonious, balanced contours of reliquary guardian figures convey a sense of tranquility highly valued in both art and life in Fang culture....
- While each of the lesser groups has developed dialectic differences, the whole Fang language is basically one.
Origin
French, probably from Fang Pangwe.
- non-consent
- non-consenter
- non-consenting
- non-consequence
- non-conservative
- non-consumption
- non-contact
- non-contact time
- non-contagion
- non-contagionist
- non-contagious
- non-contemporaneity
- non-contemporaneous
- non-content
- non-contentious
- non-contingent
- noncontradiction
- noncontradictory
- non-contributory
- non-controversial
- non-conviction
- non-cooperate
- non-cooperating
- non-cooperation
- non-cooperative