# dragon

Pronunciation: say "DRAG-uhn" /ˈdɹæɡən/

## Noun

1. A mythical monster like a huge reptile, often winged and fire-breathing; in European stories it is usually evil, while in East Asian tradition it is a long, snake-like creature that brings good fortune.
   - Simple: A huge, scaly monster in old stories, often with wings and breathing fire, or a lucky snake-like creature in Asian tradition.
   - _The knight rode into the mountains to slay the dragon guarding the gold._
   - _Saint George is usually painted spearing a dragon beneath his horse's hooves._
2. Any of various real lizards named for their likeness to the legendary dragon, such as the bearded dragon, the water dragon, the flying dragon, and the Komodo dragon.
   - Simple: A real lizard that looks a bit like a dragon, such as a bearded dragon or a Komodo dragon.
   - _A healthy dragon basks under its heat lamp for much of the day and eats insects and greens._
   - _In the rainforest canopy, a dragon spread the flaps of skin along its ribs and glided to the next tree._
3. Something very formidable or dangerous, thought of as a monster.
   - Simple: Something very powerful, hard to beat, or dangerous, like a monster.
   - _Inflation was the dragon the new government had promised to slay._
   - _After months of avoiding it, she finally sat down to face the dragon of her unfinished thesis._
4. A woman who is fierce and unpleasant to deal with.
   - Simple: A woman who is fierce and unkind to people.
   - _The principal was a real dragon, and students went quiet whenever she walked by._
   - _Getting past his secretary, a notorious dragon, took three phone calls and a lot of charm._
5. A sea dragon, one of several animals that resemble the legendary dragon in appearance.
   - Simple: A sea dragon, a sea animal that looks a bit like the dragon in stories.
   - _Divers off southern Australia spotted a leafy sea dragon drifting among the kelp._
   - _The aquarium's new tank holds two weedy sea dragons collected off the coast of Tasmania._
6. China, whether the empire of former times or today's People's Republic.
   - Simple: The country of China, today or in the days of its emperors.
   - _Analysts debated whether the Dragon's slowing growth would drag down other Asian markets._
   - _With China's factories running at full speed, the business papers kept asking whether the Dragon could hold that pace for another decade._
7. Any of the mahjong tiles in the class of white, green, and red dragons.
   - Simple: In the game mahjong, one of the white, green, or red tiles called dragons.
   - _Holding three white dragons, she declared a pung and laid them face up on the table._
   - _He discarded the lone red dragon, since no one else seemed to be collecting them._
8. The constellation Draco, named with the Latin word for dragon.
   - Simple: The star group Draco, whose name means dragon in Latin.
   - _Seen from northern Canada, the Dragon never dips below the horizon but circles the pole all night._
   - _Thuban, a faint star in the Dragon, was the pole star when the pyramids of Egypt were built._
9. A male drag performer or cross-dresser, or by extension sometimes a transgender woman. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A man who dresses as a woman, often to perform on stage, or sometimes a trans woman.
10. A woman regarded as unattractive in appearance. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: A woman that someone thinks is not nice to look at.

## Noun

11. A computer process that runs in the background, much like a daemon. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A computer program that runs quietly in the background and does jobs for the system.
12. A snake of very great size, such as a python. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A huge snake, like a python.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A musket often hung by a hook from a swivel on a soldier's belt, with a short, large-bore barrel that widens at the muzzle.
- (noun) A particular variety of the carrier pigeon.
- (noun) In older accounts, a glowing light over marshy ground that seemed to fly through the air like a winged serpent.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–8, 10–12** — Ancient Greek drákōn ("a huge serpent, a python, a dragon"), which probably comes from dérkomai ("I see clearly"), passed into Latin as dracō(n), then into Old French as dragon, and Middle English borrowed it as dragoun. It largely replaced Old English draca, the source of modern drake, which came from the same Latin word, as did Draco, dracone, and dragoon.
**Meaning 9** — Derived from drag queen.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dragon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).