COBRA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cobra mean? 

• COBRA (noun)
  The noun COBRA has 1 sense:

1. venomous Asiatic and African elapid snakes that can expand the skin of the neck into a hood

  Familiarity information: COBRA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COBRA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Venomous Asiatic and African elapid snakes that can expand the skin of the neck into a hood

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

elapid; elapid snake (any of numerous venomous fanged snakes of warmer parts of both hemispheres)

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

Indian cobra; Naja naja (a cobra of tropical Africa and Asia)

asp; Egyptian cobra; Naja haje (cobra used by the Pharaohs as a symbol of their power over life and death)

black-necked cobra; Naja nigricollis; spitting cobra (aggressive cobra widely distributed in Africa; rarely bites but spits venom that may cause blindness)

hamadryad; king cobra; Naja hannah; Ophiophagus hannah (large cobra of southeastern Asia and the East Indies; the largest venomous snake; sometimes placed in genus Naja)

 Context examples 

“Commercial Indian antivenom completely failed to protect mice injected with the venom of the monocled cobra from Arunachal Pradesh.”

(‘India needs region-specific snakebite antivenoms’, SciDev.Net)

These findings demonstrate that elapid snakes, such as cobras, kraits and sea snakes—were present in Africa as early as 25 million years ago.

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

“Snake-catcher is what I call them, and Teddy is amazing quick on cobras. I have one here without the fangs, and Teddy catches it every night to please the folk in the canteen.

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

However, in the study, Senji Laxme from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and colleagues show that the antivenom used in India works only against the ‘big four’ — the common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), spectacled cobra (Naja naja), saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus) and Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii) — but not against several other medically important species.

(‘India needs region-specific snakebite antivenoms’, SciDev.Net)

Kartik Sunagar, an author of the study and assistant professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, tells that the venom of spectacled cobra found in West Bengal is strongly neurotoxic while that of the same species in Arunachal Pradesh state is extremely cytotoxic.

(‘India needs region-specific snakebite antivenoms’, SciDev.Net)

The researchers studied the venom composition, activities and toxicities of India’s neglected venomous snake species, including the monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia), Sochurek's saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus sochureki), banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus), and Sind krait, and found that the standard Indian antivenom had disturbing deficiencies.

(‘India needs region-specific snakebite antivenoms’, SciDev.Net)