hydra

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Hy·dra

(hī′drə)

1. Greek Mythology The many-headed monster that was slain by Hercules.

2. Astronomy A satellite of Pluto.

3. A constellation in the equatorial region of the southern sky near Cancer, Libra, and Centaurus. Also called Snake².

4. A persistent or multifaceted problem that cannot be eradicated by a single effort.

[Middle English Idra, from Latin Hydra, from Greek Hudrā, Hydra, a water serpent; see wed- in Indo-European roots.]

hy·dra

(hī′drə)

n. pl. hy·dras or hy·drae (-drē)

Any of several small solitary freshwater hydrozoans of the genus Hydra and related genera, having a cylindrical body and a mouth surrounded by tentacles.

[New Latin Hydra, genus name, from Latin Hydra, Hydra; see Hydra.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hydra

(ˈhaɪdrə)

n, pl -dras or -drae (-driː)

1. (Animals) any solitary freshwater hydroid coelenterate of the genus Hydra, in which the body is a slender polyp with tentacles around the mouth

2. a persistent trouble or evil: the hydra of the Irish problem.

[C16: from Latin, from Greek hudra water serpent; compare otter]

Hydra

(ˈhaɪdrə)

(Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a monster with nine heads, each of which, when struck off, was replaced by two new ones

Hydra

(ˈhaɪdrə)

n, Latin genitive Hydrae (ˈhaɪdriː)

(Astronomy) a very long faint constellation lying mainly in the S hemisphere and extending from near Virgo to Cancer

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

hy•dra

(ˈhaɪ drə)

n., pl. -dras, -drae (-dri) for 1–3, gen. -drae (-dri) for 4.

1. (often cap.) a water monster of Greek myth having nine heads, each of which, if cut off, grew back as two.

2. any freshwater polyp of the family Hydridae, having a cylindrical body with a ring of tentacles surrounding the mouth.

3. a persistent or complex problem that presents new obstacles even as existing ones are overcome.

4. (cap.) the Sea Serpent, a southern constellation extending through 90° of the sky.

[1325–75; Middle English ydre < Middle French < Latin < Greek hýdrā water serpent; compare otter]

hy·dra

(hī′drə)

Any of several small freshwater polyps having a simple cylindrical body with a mouth-like opening surrounded by tentacles. The young develop from eggs or from buds.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	Hydra - (Greek mythology) monster with nine heads; when struck off each head was replaced by two new ones; "Hydra was slain by Hercules" Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks mythical creature, mythical monster - a monster renowned in folklore and myth
	2.	Hydra - a long faint constellation in the southern hemisphere near the equator stretching between Virgo and Cancer Snake
	3.	hydra - trouble that cannot be overcome by a single effort because of its many aspects or its persistent and pervasive quality; "we may be facing a hydra that defies any easy solution" trouble, problem - a source of difficulty; "one trouble after another delayed the job"; "what's the problem?"
	4.	hydra - small tubular solitary freshwater hydrozoan polyp hydroid, hydrozoan - colonial coelenterates having the polyp phase dominant genus Hydra - hydras

Translations

Wasserschlange

Ύδρα

Hydrahydre

idra

гидра

hydra

[ˈhaɪdrə] N (hydras or hydrae (pl)) [ˈhaɪdriː] → hidra f
Hydra (Myth) → Hidra f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

hydra

n (Zool, Myth) → Hydra f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in classic literature ?

He read the leading article, in which it was maintained that it was quite senseless in our day to raise an outcry that radicalism was threatening to swallow up all conservative elements, and that the government ought to take measures to crush the revolutionary hydra; that, on the contrary, "in our opinion the danger lies not in that fantastic revolutionary hydra, but in the obstinacy of traditionalism clogging progress," etc., etc.

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But they are to be pitied or laughed at, not to be quarrelled with; they mean well with their nostrums, if they could only learn that they are cutting off a Hydra's head.

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It seemed as though these slimy tentacles sprang up like the hydra's heads.

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"Yes, Giulio," she said, "proud and happy; for I have found the means of strangling this hydra."

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He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain!

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Thus roving on In confus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous Bands With shuddring horror pale, and eyes agast View'd first thir lamentable lot, and found No rest: through many a dark and drearie Vaile They pass'd, and many a Region dolorous, O're many a Frozen, many a Fierie Alpe, Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fens, Bogs, Dens, and shades of death, A Universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good, Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, Abominable, inutterable, and worse Then Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, GORGONS and HYDRA'S, and CHIMERA'S dire.

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They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.

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"There's the Hydra, a harbor defense turret-ship, but she never leaves the home waters."

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The hydra of the Romancero and some other hybrid forms, the Vedas and the Nibelungen bristle further on.

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And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles.

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In the Hydra, the animal may be turned inside out, and the exterior surface will then digest and the stomach respire.

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However, some strains of vulgaris group hydras collected in Japan show symbiotic relationships with green algae.

Horizontal Transmission of Symbiotic Green Algae Between Hydra Strains

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