adderbolt

A dragonfly.

Noun

  1. A dragonfly.
    • Other Animals I observ'd to have yet a greater number, as the Dragon-Fly or Adderbolt […]. - 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXXIX:
    • This philosopher has also found an insect fish, which transforms into an adder-bolt. - 1742, John Martyn, Ephraim Chambers, transl., The Philosophical History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris,...

Origin

From adder (“venomous snake”) + bolt (“arrow”).

Forms

adderbolts