Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
The top left is a Gaboon viper, not a puff adder.—Brian Otieno, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2025 The one in particular that gave them trouble was the puff adder, which—like southern Pacific rattlesnakes—is an ambush predator.—Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 30 Apr. 2018 This kind of behavioral segmentation had never been observed before, which the researchers say is odd given how common the puff adder is throughout Africa and is frequently kept in captivity.—Troy Farah, Discover Magazine, 17 Apr. 2019 But only one snake uses both its tail and its tongue to lure prey: the African puff adder.—Troy Farah, Discover Magazine, 17 Apr. 2019 The 22-year-old, who owned a venomous puff adder, was treated with anti-venom in Connolly Hospital, the Irish Post reported last month.—Fox News, 7 Mar. 2020 This was apparently the case with the man who was bitten in late February by a puff adder, a venomous snake native to semiarid regions (i.e., not Ireland).—Gillian Brockell, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Mar. 2020 The researchers captured puff adder shy sharks in a harbor in Cape Town, South Africa, and transported them to a government research aquarium, where the fish acclimated for four months.—Rachel Nuwer, Scientific American, 19 Dec. 2019 Take the South African puff adder Bitis arietans, which mimics an insect's movements by wagging its tongue slowly and deliberately to attract nearby amphibians.—National Geographic, 16 Feb. 2017
Share