medusan


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

me•du•san

(məˈdu sən, -zən, -ˈdyu-)

adj.
1. pertaining to a medusa or jellyfish.
n.
2. a medusa or jellyfish.
[1840–50]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.medusan - one of two forms that coelenterates take: it is the free-swimming sexual phase in the life cycle of a coelenteratemedusan - one of two forms that coelenterates take: it is the free-swimming sexual phase in the life cycle of a coelenterate; in this phase it has a gelatinous umbrella-shaped body and tentacles
Cnidaria, Coelenterata, phylum Cnidaria, phylum Coelenterata - hydras; polyps; jellyfishes; sea anemones; corals
cnidarian, coelenterate - radially symmetrical animals having saclike bodies with only one opening and tentacles with stinging structures; they occur in polyp and medusa forms
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
Spencer notes that Hermione is a blend of characters, namely Helen of Troy, Prometheus, and Medusan Victim.
whose charms Rouse torments exquisite and cruel delights, Whose lovely glance, when turned on Bellon's host, Shivers the spear-shafts, breaks the serried shields, Do you oust Mars this day, bid Hymen in, And tear the snakes from Strife's Medusan head!
This writing demonstrates Lilith's sexual and personal self-assertion, her pariah, morally dubious, witchlike or Medusan qualities, and her life and death qualities as embodied in the primeval snake symbolism of Eden, as both goddess and devil.
Thus, despite this initial appearance of double-labeling, the staining of the two networks with FMRF-amide and tubulin antibodies was functionally distinct, and therefore useful in describing the double-innervation of the various medusan tissues.
(11) Perseus's encounter with Phineus is particularly relevant to Petrarch's appropriation of this scene because it is the first time that Medusan petrification is linked explicitly to fame.
configurations of human interaction" even as it attempts to enforce them (Haggerty 3-4), what Eustace articulates is unease at the prospect that Primrose's own Medusan femininity might make him, as a student of mine once put it, "rock hard." Similarly, when Perseus frets about the Gorgon's awful power, his worries take the form of a fear that his sword-wielding member might "stiffen into stone" and stand "uplifted ...
And again: "la fissai; e, come ella rimaneva muta, a poco a poco non vidi se non gli occhi suoi larghi, straordinariamente larghi, e cupi ed immobili" (468), thus evoking not only the mystique surrounding the feminine, but also her medusan paralyzing nature as well.
The stricken, Medusan images have a peculiar power of desolation and of reaching into the desperate historical predicament of the post-bellum South.
Under her unerring Medusan gaze, which would turn the entity of her sight into a solid "rock," Pierre metamorphoses precisely into "the hero of some dark hope forlorn, whose cruelness makes a savage of a man," though, as I will suggest, this reversal of the binary between civilization and savagery--this de-structuration of "structure"--will take on a meaning that is antithetical to that which her centered/panoptic perspective--and that of the writers whose domestic novels of manners Pierre had so well "conned"--intends.
Its glistening, dull-purple flesh looks like wet clay or Medusan genitalia; its arms snake through a scatter of gold dragees.