hyena Hear it!

hyena Definition

hy·ena (hī ē)

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

hyena Usage Examples

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 " .
hyena Quotes

   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?

—Bryan,WilliamJennings