TRITON • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Triton

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/trˈaɪtən/ Listen

noun

Triton n. (Gr. Myth.)

A fabled sea demigod, the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and the trumpeter of Neptune. He is represented by poets and painters as having the upper part of his body like that of a man, and the lower part like that of a fish. He often has a trumpet made of a shell. "Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."

(Zool.) Any one of many species of marine gastropods belonging to Triton and allied genera, having a stout spiral shell, often handsomely colored and ornamented with prominent varices. Some of the species are among the largest of all gastropods. Called also trumpet shell, and sea trumpet.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of aquatic salamanders. The common European species are Hemisalamandra cristata, Molge palmata, and Molge alpestris, a red-bellied species common in Switzerland. The most common species of the United States is Diemyctylus viridescens.

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Etymology of 'Triton'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Triton" Quotes from Famous Books

... his house on foot. The evening was chill and gray, and a heavy leaden twilight was settling over the city. The lamps were already lighted round the fountain in the Piazza Barberini like pale tapers round a funeral bier, and the Triton, whether being under repair or for some other reason, had ceased to spout water. Down the sloping roadway came a line of carts drawn by two or three horses harnessed in single file, and bands of workmen returning home from the new buildings. A group of ...

— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio

... upon these marbles seem to have no connection with each other, and are executed in a rude manner. The most interesting one represents Heracles, or Hercules, struggling with a Triton (Fig. 16). ...

— A History of Art for Beginners and Students - Painting, Sculpture, Architecture • Clara Erskine Clement

... quite close, and out of it clambered a man of monstrous stature, who came wading to shore with the water not up to his knees, though it would have reached the hips of many men. He leaned on a long rake or pole, which looked like a trident, and made him look like a Triton. Wet as he was, and with strips of seaweed clinging to him, he walked across to my cafe, and, sitting down at a table outside, asked for cherry brandy, a liqueur which I keep, but is seldom demanded. Then the monster, with ...

— Manalive • G. K. Chesterton

... are out of tune; It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton ...

— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 3 (of 4) • Various

... appear to us, In name of great Oceanus. By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, And the Carpathian wizard's hook; By scaly Triton's winding shell, And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; By Leucothea's lovely hands, And her son that rules the strands; By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, And the songs of Sirens sweet; By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, And fair Ligea's golden ...

— Milton's Comus • John Milton

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