gorgon

a. Like a Gorgon; very ugly or terrific; as, a Gorgon face. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. ] (Zool.) See Gorgoniacea. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Gorgonian, 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Gorgoneia [ NL., fr. Gr. Gorgo`neios, equiv. to Gorgei^os belonging to a Gorgon. ] (Arch.) A mask carved in imitation of a Gorgon's head. Elmes. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., a coral which hardens in the air. ] (Zool.) 1. A genus of Gorgoniacea, formerly very extensive, but now restricted to such species as the West Indian sea fan (Gorgonia flabellum), sea plume (G. setosa), and other allied species having a flexible, horny axis. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any slender branched gorgonian. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Gorgonia. ] (Zool.) One of the principal divisions of Alcyonaria, including those forms which have a firm and usually branched axis, covered with a porous crust, or cœnenchyma, in which the polyp cells are situated. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The axis is commonly horny, but it may be solid and stony (composed of calcium carbonate), as in the red coral of commerce, or it may be in alternating horny and stony joints, as in Isis. See Alcyonaria, Anthozoa, Cœnenchyma. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. Gorgoneus. ] 1. Pertaining to, or resembling, a Gorgon; terrifying into stone; terrific. [ 1913 Webster ]

The rest his look
Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Pertaining to the Gorgoniacea; as, gorgonian coral. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) One of the Gorgoniacea. [ 1913 Webster ]