chiefly South and Midland: a fabled snake of extremely venomous character that rolls itself up with its tail in its mouth to proceed at great speed in the manner of a hoop and destroys both animal and plant life with a sting in the end of its tail
2
: either of two harmless brightly colored burrowing colubrid snakes chiefly of the southeastern U.S.:
a
: a large snake (Farancia abacura) that is blue black above and largely red below and has a sharp nonvenomous spine at the end of its tail
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