[f. BOA + L. constrictor, one who squeezes or draws together.]
1. The specific name of a large Brazilian serpent of the genus Boa, of which it was supposed by Linnæus to be the largest species; though this is not the case, the name (partly no doubt from its meaning) has taken hold of the popular fancy as that of the largest and most terrible of the serpents, and is commonly applied to any great crushing snake, whether a Boa or Python.
[1788. Linnæus, Syst. Nat., I. III. 1083. Boa, (β) constrictor, rex serpentum.]
1809. Gen. P. Thompson, Let. fr. Sierra Leone, 26 Jan. The Boa Constrictor is described by the Natives and our Colonists with evident marks of the magnifying power of fear.
1811. L. Simond, Tour & Resid. Gt. Brit. (1817), II. 252. The boa Constrictor is a gigantic Snake.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 27/1. The name of Anaconda, like that of Boa Constrictor, has been popularly applied to all the larger and more powerful snakes.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., x. 161. We came upon a fine boa-constrictor (python).
2. fig.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, IV. i. 138. [His letters] are … perfect epistolary Boa Constrictors … I myself have suffered under their voluminous windings.
1848. H. Rogers, Ess. (1874), I. vi. 320. He feels himself within the coils of a great logical boa constrictor.
Hence Boa-constrictorish, -constrictorlike a.
1835. Clough, Poems & Prose Rem. (1869), I. 58. All the physic which has lengthened the doctor’s bill to a most boa-constrictor-like size.
1881. Blackw. Mag., July, 123. Many a boa-constrictorish adventurer … victualling himself for many days to come.
