Pronunciations (2)
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/ˈsfɪŋks/
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sfɪŋks
Noun
A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal, commonly a lion.
- Examples
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[W]hatsoe'er of strange / Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, / Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphynx, / Dark Æthiopia in her desert hills. / Conceals.
A person who keeps their thoughts and intentions secret; an enigmatic or impassive person.
Usage- Figurative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
...it is clear that judges are no longer required to be as passive as they once were; to be what I call sphinx judges. We now not only accept that a judge may intervene in the adversarial debate, but also believe that it is sometimes essential for him to do so for justice in fact to be done.
A mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx), formerly classified as a baboon, and called sphinx baboon.
Usage- Dated
A sphinx moth.
A sphincter.
Usage- euphemistic
- Rare
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Constance said boastfully, ‘My sphinxes are strong and in good repair. I order you to come.’
Verb
To decorate with sphinxes.
Usage- Transitive
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a marble sphinxed chimney-piece
To adopt the posture of the Sphinx.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
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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)
To be inscrutable, often through silence.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
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The sphinxèd riddle of the Universe, Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?
More examples (1)
Then there are the folks trying to do a Garbo on us[…]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.
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.
To behave in a manner characteristic of the Sphinx.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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[…]
And then he summarizes his fears with a reference to that icon which[…]stood for the feminine threat to civilization: “Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: it is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them.” Male fears of an engulfing femininity are here projected onto the metropolitan masses, who did indeed represent a threat to the rational bourgeois order.[…]We may want to relate Le Bon's social psychology of the masses back to modernism's own fears of being sphinxed.
Noun
an inscrutable person who keeps their thoughts and intentions secret
one of a number of large stone statues with the body of a lion and the head of a man that were built by the ancient Egyptians
- Broader terms