Full Definition
حِرْبَاءٌ
[The male chameleon;] the male of what is called
أُمُّ حُبَيْنٍ; (S, Msb, K; [but see the latter appellation in art. حبن;]) a well-known animal: or a certain reptile, like the
عَظَآءَة, said to be larger than this latter, somewhat larger, that turns itself, or its head, towards the sun, turning with the sun as the sun turns, and assuming various colours by reason of the heat of the sun: Az describes it as a reptile resembling in form what is called
سَامُّ أَبْرَصَ, with four legs, slender head, [which is not correct as applied to the chameleon,] and striped back; that all the day looks towards the sun; and he adds that its flesh is impure, and the Arabs never eat it: [accord. to Freytag, the word, thus applied, is said to be from خُرْبَا, meaning حافظ الشمس :] the fem. is with ة: and the pl. حَرَابِىُّ. [The word حرباء is used in passages cited in the TA as masc. and fem.; whence it seems that it may be written حِرْبَآءُ as well as حِرْبَآءٌ.] The Arabs used the expression حِرْبَآءُ تَنْضُبٍ or تَنْضُبَ, like ذئْبُ غَضًا: [the latter word in each of these cases being the name of a tree:] the former is proverbially applied to a prudent man; because the حرباء does not quit the first branch but to leap upon the second. The phrase اِنْتَصَبَ العُودُ فِى
الحِرْبَآءِ is used, by inversion, for انتصب الحرباءُ
فى العودِ [The male chameleon stood erect upon the branch]: for it stands erect upon stones, and upon the roots or trunks of trees, looking towards the sun, and declines as the sun declines.
2 Also The back: or its flesh: or حِرْبَآءُ
المَتْنِ means the flesh along either side of the backbone: or this, or الحرباءُ, the ridge of the backbone: or حَرَابِىُّ
المَتْنِ signifies the portions of flesh, or the flesh, along either side of the backbone: the sing. is حِرْبَآءٌ; likened to the حرباء [or male chameleon] of the desert, and therefore tropical: Kr says that the sing. of حَرَابِىُّ الظُّهُورِ is حِرْبَآءٌ accord. to rule; showing that it has no known sing. on the authority of hearsay.
def.2 The nails, or a nail, of a coat of mail: or the head of a nail in a ring of a coat of mail: pl. as above.
def.3 And Rugged ground: or rugged and hard ground; accord. to Th; but the word commonly known is حِزْبَآءٌ, with záy. [This meaning has been supposed to be assigned in the K to مُحْرَبِئَةٌ; but the TA shows that such is not the case.]
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