nymph
/nɪmf
/noun
1A mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations: the idyllic world of nymphs and shepherds a wood nymph...
- Nijinsky's was about a mythological creature who encounters nymphs in a wood on a summer afternoon.
- Zeus freed Odysseus from the nymph Calypso, who held him prisoner on her island, by sending Mercury with an order to Calypso herself.
- Enter Paris, a shepherd in a rather creative marriage with the mountain nymph Oenone.
Synonyms
sprite, sylph, wood nymph, water nymph
1.1chiefly literary A beautiful young woman.
Synonyms
girl, belle, maiden, maid, nymphet, sylph;
young woman, young lady;
Scottish & Northern English lass, lassie;
Irish colleen
British dated rosebud
literary maid, maiden, damsel
archaic demoiselle
2An immature form of an insect that does not change greatly as it grows, e.g. a dragonfly, mayfly, or locust. Compare with larva.The bulk of the diet of trout is made up of small invertebrates, particularly mayfly nymphs and caddis fly larvae....
- The afternoon of pond-dipping will be divided between two of Oakwell's ponds and visitors can expect to see anything from sticklebacks and frogs to diving beetles and dragonfly nymphs.
- As a grasshopper nymph grows, the pads become longer and venation becomes evident.
2.1An artificial fishing fly made to resemble the aquatic nymph of an insect.To be a successful all-round grayling angler you need a selection of dry flies, nymphs and wet flies....
- A selection of nymphs and dry flies such as beaded pheasant tail, damsel and dragon fly nymphs all will all work.
- When fishing in Swedish Lapland I have used some awesome looking stone fly nymphs which the grayling eat with relish.
3A mainly brown butterfly that frequents woods and forest glades.
- Several genera in the subfamily Satyrinae, family Nymphalidae. See also wood nymph.
- When you visit the Butterfly Wing, one of the most remarkable butterflies you will see is the giant wood nymph, Idea leuconoe.
- The Ceylon tree nymph is a beautiful silvery white butterfly (2) and is the largest member of the Danaidae family in Sri Lanka.
Derivatives
nymphal
/ adjective ...- Treatments began on 28 July, later than in the 1996 experiment because nymphal hatching was delayed (probably a result of an exceptionally cold spring).
- In September, uninfected survivors (both males and females) were all adults while collaborative females typically retained a nymphal phenotype.
- In insects, the general view is that juvenile hormone maintains larval and nymphal characteristics in developing insects and suppresses metamorphosis into adults.
nymphean
- Indeed, if anything, Pera takes too much of Humbert's version for granted -- particularly Lolita's ‘nymphean evil.’
- Her husband is accused of child-molesting, her brother is a lush who has got the maid pregnant, one of her daughters is 'wrong in the head', while the other is scampering through puberty towards nymphean alcoholism.
nymph-like
- I was having an interesting conversation with a girl but nobody had warned me that the her nymph-like looks were complemented by the Irish surname O'Maniac.
- On this album, Nona's nymph-like voice is accompanied by a small number of instruments, usually a guitar.
- She'd been a tiny, exquisite, nymph-like child, and when I saw her she was a large, composed woman.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French nimphe, from Latin nympha, from Greek numphē 'nymph, bride'; related to Latin nubere 'be the wife of'.