a. [f. VIPER + -ISH.]
1. fig. Venomous, viperous, spiteful.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), II. 40. Tell me, you viperish scoffer, what you think hath won this kingdom?
1860. W. Collins, Wom. White, III. narr. W. Hartwright vii, She cast one viperish look at me as I entered the hall.
1880. Miss Braddon, Just as I am, xlv. He listened to her viperish speech.
1889. Spectator, 14 Dec., 839. All sorts of characters, from the most malignant and viperish to the noblest and most self-forgetful.
2. Somewhat resembling a viper: viper-like.
1863. Miss Braddon, Aurora Floyd, xv. It seemed as if her footfall had startled some viperish creature.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 218. [Medea’s] viperish loose hair and throbbing skin.
Hence Viperishly adv., with the rapid and sinuous motion of a viper.
1870. Temple Bar Mag., XXIX. 180. Men … with lissom wrists that can make a foil curl viperishly round an antagonist’s blade.
