any of several species of non-venomous snake found in Africa, Asia, and Australia, that kills its their prey by constriction. Pythons include the largest living snakes, and can swallow animals up to the size of pigs, goats, and deer: family Pythonidae
pythonic /pieʹthonik/ adj
pythonine /-nien, -neen/ adj
[via Latin from Greek Pythōn, the name of a monstrous serpent which guarded the oracle at Delphi and was killed by Apollo]