hyena
hy·ena (hī ē′nə)
noun
any of various wolflike carnivores (family Hyaenidae) of Africa and Asia, with powerful jaws, a bristly mane, short hind legs, and a characteristic shrill cry: hyenas feed on carrion and are thought of as cowardly
Etymology: L hyaena < Gr hyaina, hyena, lit., sow (so called from its hoglike mane) < hys, a hog (+ -aina, fem. suffix) < IE base *sū-, hog > swine
Converse of object
- spot: Special sightings included lion, spotted hyena, bush pig, buffalo, hippo and many large and strange birds.
- laugh: A ghoul might seem to have set it going, and laughing hyenas to be chorusing it.
- see: He was startled by a nightmare in which he saw a hyena chewing his leg.
- make: This makes hyenas vital to the recycling of nutrients in their savannah ecosystem.
- hear: The laughing hyena heard near the folds last night.
- keep: All the dwellings are walled into compounds to keep the ubiquitous hyena from the animals at night.
Converse of subject
- eat: It is entitled, " I was eaten by a hyena.
- attack: She's been attacked by hyenas and is bleeding to death.
Adjective modifier
- spotted: Watching while the spotted hyenas were 'laughing ' made for some surreal video footage!
- striped: The Striped hyena is sometimes killed by farmers for raiding their fruit crops.
- laughing: The laughing hyena heard near the folds last night.
- hungry: Hungry hyenas will sometimes take the trouble to dig such a pig out, but that is hard work.
Modifies a noun
- den: Civets and genets leave dung middens in the caves, and one cave was in use as a hyena den.
Noun used with modifier
- cave: This is the lower jaw of a cave hyena.
Preposition: in
- petticoat: One critic described Wollstonecraft as a " hyena in petticoats " .
What shall we say of the intelligence, not to say religion, of those who are so particular to distinguish between fishes and reptiles and birds, but put a man with an immortalsoul inthesame circlewiththewolf, thehyena, and theskunk? What must betheimpressionmadeupon children by such a degradation of man?
Browse dictionary entries near hyena
- Hydrus
- hydrozoan
- hydroxyproline
- hydroxylate
- hydroxylamine
- hydroxyl ion
- hydroxyl
- hydroxyketone
- hydroxybutyric acid
- hydroxy-
- hyeto-
- hyetograph
- hyetography
- Hygeia
- hygiene
- hygienic
- hygienics
- hygienist
- hygro-
- hygrograph
