Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Sphinx

Sphinx (sfĭnks), n. [L., from Gr. σφίγξ, usually derived from σφίγγειν to bind tight or together, as if the Throttler.] 1. (a) In Egyptian art, an image of granite or porphyry, having a human head, or the head of a ram or of a hawk, upon the wingless body of a lion.

The awful ruins of the days of old . . . Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx. Shelley.

(b) On Greek art and mythology, a she-monster, usually represented as having the winged body of a lion, and the face and breast of a young woman. The most famous Grecian sphinx, that of Thebes in Bœotia, is said to have proposed a riddle to the Thebans, and killed those who were unable to guess it. The enigma was solved by Œdipus, whereupon the sphinx slew herself. "Subtle as sphinx." Shak.

2. Hence: A person of enigmatical character and purposes, especially in politics and diplomacy.

3. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of large moths of the family Sphingidæ; — called also hawk moth.

☞ The larva is a stout naked caterpillar which, when at rest, often assumes a position suggesting the Egyptian sphinx, whence the name.

4. (Zoöl.) The Guinea, or sphinx, baboon (Cynocephalus sphinx).

Sphinx baboon (Zoöl.), a large West African baboon (Cynocephalus sphinx), often kept in menageries. — Sphinx moth. (Zoöl.) Same as Sphinx, 3.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.