Sphinx Definition
sfĭngks
sphinges, sphinxes
noun
A winged monster with a lion's body and the head and breasts of a woman.
Webster's New World
Any ancient Egyptian statue or figure having, typically, the body of a lion and the head of a man, ram, or hawk.
Webster's New World
A sphinx at Thebes that strangles passersby who are unable to guess its riddle.
Webster's New World
A puzzling or mysterious person.
American Heritage
Webster's New World
pronoun
verb
To decorate with sphinxes.
A marble sphinxed chimney-piece.
Wiktionary
To adopt the posture of the Sphinx.
A hot lion with a very bloated stomach ... will adopt either a sphinxed or a squatting posture which takes some of the weight off its belly.
Several animals maintained either a crouched ... or a sphinxing posture (abdomen on the flo)
Wiktionary
To be inscrutable, often through silence.
(1900) The sphinxèd riddle of the Universe / Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?
(1933) Janet Gaynor, so they tell, is sphinxing it and has gone into a Retirement, with "Nothing to Say "” Please Go Away" written on the doormat.
(1934) The men of science will climb grassy hillsides of [Easter] island to peer at hundreds of great stone faces that have so far out-sphinxed the sphinx in determined silence about the past.
(1954) "What are you two sphinxing about?" said Jessica, but her husband said Never mind.
(1964) What with Fisher whole-hogging on one side, and K. of K. sphinxing on the other, Churchill had his work cut out to get any sort of agreement at all.
Wiktionary
To make one guess at the unknowable.
(1933) Perhaps Nature is sphinxing us on purpose. Whatever her objects may be, perhaps she gets her work done better when she appeals to our gambling instincts. If you knew for certain exactly how your marriage was going to turn out ...
Wiktionary
To befuddle.
(2010) She swiveled and sphinxed Giles. 'And you, I suppose you've never been here either?' Giles squirmed. 'Well, I - that is, Miss Wh"”, I mean, Miss Taylor, I -' He looked to me for rescue.
Wiktionary
Other Word Forms of Sphinx
Noun
Singular:
sphinxPlural:
sphinges, sphinxesOrigin of Sphinx
-
From Middle English Spynx, from Latin Sphinx, from Ancient Greek Σφίγξ (Sphínx). Perhaps from σφίγγω (sphingo, “to squeeze, to strangle"), or from Egyptian Szp-'nx (shesp-ankh) 'divine image', literally, 'living image'.
From Wiktionary
Middle English Spynx from Latin Sphinx from Greek
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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