BOA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does boa mean? 

• BOA (noun)
  The noun BOA has 2 senses:

1. a long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur

2. any of several chiefly tropical constrictors with vestigial hind limbs

  Familiarity information: BOA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

boa; feather boa

Hypernyms ("boa" is a kind of...):

scarf (a garment worn around the head or neck or shoulders for warmth or decoration)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several chiefly tropical constrictors with vestigial hind limbs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("boa" is a kind of...):

constrictor (any of various large nonvenomous snakes that kill their prey by crushing it in its coils)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boa"):

boa constrictor; Constrictor constrictor (very large boa of tropical America and West Indies)

Charina bottae; rubber boa; tow-headed snake (boa of grasslands and woodlands of western North America; looks and feels like rubber with tail and head of similar shape)

Lichanura trivirgata; rosy boa (boa of rocky desert of southwestern United States)

anaconda; Eunectes murinus (large arboreal boa of tropical South America)

python (large Old World boas)

Holonyms ("boa" is a member of...):

Boidae; family Boidae (boas and pythons)

 Context examples 

Even the Cuban boa is getting harder to observe, because the snakes have been hunted for food and pets.

(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)

Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her ear.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The team was surprised to discover higher-than-expected concentrations of colubroid snakes, suggesting the local environment was more open and seasonally dry, thus more hospitable to these types of active hunting snakes that don't require cover to ambush prey like boas and pythons do.

(Researchers find oldest fossil evidence of modern African venomous snakes, NSF)

Here are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight. ‘Lady with a black boa at Prince’s Skating Club’—that we may pass. ‘Surely Jimmy will not break his mother’s heart’—that appears to be irrelevant. ‘If the lady who fainted on Brixton bus’—she does not interest me. ‘Every day my heart longs—’ Bleat, Watson—unmitigated bleat!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This made it difficult or impossible for the bats to pass without getting within striking distance of at least one boa.

(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)

Vladimir Dinets, who led the study, said the boas hang from the ceiling of cave entrances at dusk and dawn, when bats either enter or leave the cave.

(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)

Researchers from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville say the Cuban boa, the largest native terrestrial predator on the island they are named after, coordinate their hunts in the island’s bat caves.

(Snakes Hunt in Groups, Study Suggests, VOA)