cobra

noun

1. Any of the genus Naja of venomous snakes that can spread their neck ribs into a broad hood when threatened; a true cobra.

   “In the pools, too, was a species of small alligator or enormous iguana, I do not know which, that fed, Billali told me, upon the waterfowl, also large quantities of a hideous black water-snake, of which the bite is very dangerous, though not, I gathered, so deadly as a cobra's or a puff adder's.”

2. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
3. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
4. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
5. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
6. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
7. Certain other snakes of the family Elapidae.
8. A false water cobra, Hydrodynastes gigas.
9. A type of lanyard knot, thought to resemble a snake in its shape.
10. (UK, broadly)A cabinet committee meeting that would use a COBR room
11. (UK, broadly)A cabinet committee that would meet using a COBR room

name

1. (UK, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Cabinet Office Briefing Room A.
2. (UK, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, broadly)Acronym of Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms.
3. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, especially the provision that allows some employees to continue their group-based health insurance after leaving a job; also, health insurance obtained under this law.

   “There were COBRA forms to fill out for insurance, and unemployment to file for.”

4. (UK, alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of COBRA.

   “Boris Johnson was accused on Saturday of being “missing in action” after failing to attend a Cobra meeting to discuss the national heatwave emergency following predictions that thousands could die in the coming days.”

   “In the UK, a Cobra security meeting was called and in Estonia, which neighbours Russia, the prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said there was strengthened security on the border.”

5. (rare)A male given name.