1. A nymph of the woods; a superhuman being imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting woods; a dryad or hamadryad.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., M ij b. The Woodnymphes likewise followed moste nicely tripping.
1634. Milton, Comus, 120. By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim, The Wood-Nymphs deckt with Daisies trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Ibid. (1667), P. L., IX. 386. She … like a Wood-Nymph light Oread or Dryad … Betook her to the Groves.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxvii. Marble statues of wood-nymphs.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxvii. She possessed the form and hue of a wood-nymph, with the beauty of a sylph.
1867. Morris, Jason, I. 92. Then mayst thou find, In some fair grassy place, the wood-nymphs kind.
b. transf. (cf. DRYAD 2 a, NYMPH 2).
1780. Mrs. H. Cowley, Belle’s Stratagem, II. i. The maxims you learnt among the wood-nymphs, in Shropshire, won’t pass current here.
2. a. Name for certain species of humming-bird, esp. of the genus Thalurania (Gould). b. Collectors’ name for moths of the genus Eudryas.
1861. Gould, Trochilidæ, II. Plates 99–109.
1885. Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888), II. 462. The beautiful wood-nymph, Eudryas grata.
