Griffin vs Sphinx - What's the difference?
griffin | sphinx |
A mythical beast having the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle.
(dated, Anglo-Indian) A person who has just arrived from Europe.
* 1842 , The Asiatic journal and monthly register (volume 38, page 40)
A large vulture (Gyps fulvus ) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of the Bible. The bearded griffin is the lammergeier.
An English early apple.
A cadet newly arrived in British India: half English, half Indian.[http://books.google.com/books?id=pgoPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA555]
(mythology) A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion).
* Shelley
A person who keeps his/her thoughts and intentions secret; an enigmatic person.
Cynocephalus sphinx , a kind of baboon.
A sphinx moth.
(rare) A sphincter.
* 1982 , (Lawrence Durrell), Constance'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 836:
To decorate with sphinxes
To adopt the posture of the Sphinx.
To be inscrutable, often through silence
To make one guess at the unknowable
To befuddle
For the feminine to co-opt, dominate, or devour the masculine, especially from a paranoid fear of this happening
As nouns the difference between griffin and sphinx
is that griffin is a mythical beast having the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle while sphinx is a creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion).As proper nouns the difference between griffin and sphinx
is that griffin is {{surname|common Irish|from=Irish}}, the anglicized form of both the Ó Gríobhtha (Ballygriffey Co. Clare) and Ó Grifín (Dingle, Co. Kerry) clans while Sphinx is an ancient, large statue in Egypt, with the face of a man and the body of a lion, lying near the Great Pyramids.As a verb sphinx is
to decorate with sphinxes.griffin
English
(wikipedia griffin)Alternative forms
* gryfon (obsolete) * gryphon * griffonNoun
(en noun)- Tables were laid out in the palace, profusely covered with wines and refreshments, in the European style; old hands and griffins , fair sex and civilians, seemed all determined to enjoy themselves
Anagrams
*References
sphinx
English
(wikipedia sphinx)Noun
(en-noun)- Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, / Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx
- Constance said boastfully, ‘My sphinxes are strong and in good repair. I order you to come.’
Synonyms
* enigmaDerived terms
* sphinx moth * sphingianHyponyms
* androsphinx * criosphinx * gynosphinxSee also
* chimeraVerb
- a marble sphinxed chimney-piece
- A hot lion with a very bloated stomach ... will adopt either a sphinxed or a squatting posture which takes some of the weight off its belly.
- Several animals maintained either a crouched ... or a sphinxing posture (abdomen on the floor)
- (1900') ''The '''sphinxèd riddle of the Universe / Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?
- (1933') ''Janet Gaynor, so they tell, is '''sphinxing it and has gone into a Retirement, with "Nothing to Say — Please Go Away" written on the doormat.
- (1934') ''The men of science will climb grassy hillsides of [Easter] island to peer at hundreds of great stone faces that have so far out-'''sphinxed the sphinx in determined silence about the past.
- (1954') ''"What are you two '''sphinxing about?" said Jessica, but her husband said Never mind
- (1964') ''What with Fisher whole-hogging on one side, and K. of K. '''sphinxing on the other, Churchill had his work cut out to get any sort of agreement at all.
- (1933') ''Perhaps Nature is '''sphinxing us on purpose. Whatever her objects may be, perhaps she gets her work done better when she appeals to our gambling instincts. If you knew for certain exactly how your marriage was going to turn out ...
- (2010') ''She swiveled and '''sphinxed Giles. 'And you, I suppose you've never been here either?' Giles squirmed. 'Well, I – that is, Miss Wh—, I mean, Miss Taylor, I –' He looked to me for rescue.
- (1986') ''modernism's fears of being '''sphinxed by a feminized mass culture