DESTROYING ANGEL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does destroying angel mean? 

• DESTROYING ANGEL (noun)
  The noun DESTROYING ANGEL has 2 senses:

1. fungus similar to Amanita phalloides

2. extremely poisonous usually white fungus with a prominent cup-shaped base; differs from edible Agaricus only in its white gills

  Familiarity information: DESTROYING ANGEL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESTROYING ANGEL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fungus similar to Amanita phalloides

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Amanita verna; destroying angel

Hypernyms ("destroying angel" is a kind of...):

agaric (a saprophytic fungus of the order Agaricales having an umbrellalike cap with gills on the underside)

Holonyms ("destroying angel" is a member of...):

Amanita; genus Amanita (genus of widely distributed agarics that have white spores and are poisonous with few exceptions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extremely poisonous usually white fungus with a prominent cup-shaped base; differs from edible Agaricus only in its white gills

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Amanita phalloides; death angel; death cap; death cup; destroying angel

Hypernyms ("destroying angel" is a kind of...):

agaric (a saprophytic fungus of the order Agaricales having an umbrellalike cap with gills on the underside)

Holonyms ("destroying angel" is a member of...):

Amanita; genus Amanita (genus of widely distributed agarics that have white spores and are poisonous with few exceptions)

 Context examples 

Again, I wonder with a sudden fear whether it is likely that our good old clergyman can be wrong, and Mr. and Miss Murdstone right, and that all the angels in Heaven can be destroying angels.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I looked at the picture. A man, with a preposterously wicked face, his right hand pressed dramatically to his heart, was falling backward to the floor. Confronting him, with a face that was a composite of destroying angel and Adonis, was a man holding a smoking revolver.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)