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Chameleon vs Basilisk - What's the difference?

chameleon | basilisk |

As nouns the difference between chameleon and basilisk

is that chameleon is a small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue while basilisk is a mythical (and heraldic) snake-like dragon type, reputed to be so venomous that its gaze was deadly.

As adjectives the difference between chameleon and basilisk

is that chameleon is describing something that changes color while basilisk is suggesting a basilisk : baleful, spellbinding.

chameleon

English

(wikipedia chameleon)

Alternative forms

* chamaeleon *

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae , and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
  • A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
  • * 2014 , Michael White, " Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian , 8 September 2014:
    • He is a political chameleon , as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond.
  • (physics) A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Describing something that changes color.
    • The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

    References

    * * ----

    basilisk

    English

    (wikipedia basilisk)

    Alternative forms

    * basilisc

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mythical (and heraldic) snake-like dragon type, reputed to be so venomous that its gaze was deadly.
    • The deadly look of the basilisk
  • (heraldiccharge) In heraldry, a type of dragon
  • A treedwelling type of lizard, of genus .
  • A type of large brass cannon.

    • Adjective

    (-) (rfv-sense)
  • suggesting a basilisk : baleful, spellbinding
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1870 , author= , title=The British drama: illustrated , volume=4 , url= , isbn= , page=997 , passage=Well, She is so basilisk ; there's no death in her eyes ...}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=1884 , author=M. L. O'Byrne , title=Ill-won Peerages, Or, An Unhallowed Union , chapter= , url= , isbn= , page=126 , passage=her gaze became more basilisk in its expression, and her countenance bore some similitude to that of a handsome fiend}}
  • *{{quote-book
    • , year=2004 , author=Witi Tame Ihimaera , title=Whanau II , chapter= , url= , isbn= , page=167 , passage=He had never seen her quite like this, so basilisk , so frightening}} ----