chimera Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon
    Chimaera.
  2. noun a grotesque product of the imagination
    chimaera.

WordNet

Chime"ra noun
Etymology
L. chimaera a chimera (in sense 1), Gr. a she-goat, a chimera, fr. he-goat; cf. Icel. qymbr a yearling ewe.
Wordforms
plural Chimeras
Definitions
  1. (Myth.) A monster represented as vomiting flames, and as having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. "Dire chimeras and enchanted isles." Milton.
  2. A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination; as, the chimera of an author. Burke.

Webster 1913