2. sphinx (usu. cap.) the colossal recumbent stonefigure of this kind near the pyramids of Giza.
3. sphinx (cap.) (in Greek myth) a monster, usu. represented as having the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle, who killed wayfarers unable to answer the riddle she posed to them.
4. sphinx a mysterious, inscrutable person or thing.
Etymology: (1830–40)
Definition of 'sphinx'
Princeton's WordNet
1. (noun)sphinx an inscrutable person who keeps his thoughts and intentions secret
2. (noun)Sphinx (Greek mythology) a riddling winged monster with a woman's head and breast on a lion's body; daughter of Typhon
3. (noun)sphinx one of a number of largestone statues with the body of a lion and the head of a man that were built by the ancient Egyptians
Definition of 'sphinx'
Webster Dictionary
1. (noun)sphinx in Egyptian art, an image of granite or porphyry, having a human head, or the head of a ram or of a hawk, upon the wingless body of a lion
2. (noun)sphinx on Greek art and mythology, a she-monster, usually represented as having the winged body of a lion, and the face and breast of a young woman
3. (noun)sphinx hence: A person of enigmatical character and purposes, especially in politics and diplomacy
4. (noun)sphinx any one of numerous species of large moths of the family Sphingidae; -- called also hawkmoth
5. (noun)sphinx the Guinea, or sphinx, baboon (Cynocephalus sphinx)
Definitions of 'sphinx'
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
1. sphinx a fabled animal, an invention of the ancient Egyptians, with the body and claws of a lioness, and the head of a woman, or of a ram, or of a goat, all types or representations of the king, effigies of which are frequently placed before temples on each side of the approach; the most famous of the sphinxes was the one which waylaid travellers and tormented them with a riddle, which if they could not answer she devoured them, but which Oedipus answered, whereupon she threw herself into the sea. "Such a sphinx," as we are told in "Past and Present," "is this life of ours, to all men and nations. Nature, like the Sphinx, is of womanly celestial loveliness and tenderness, the face and bosom of a goddess, but ending in the claws and the body of a lioness ... is a heavenly bride and conquest to the wise and brave, to them who can discern her behests and do them; a destroying fiend to them who cannot. Answer her riddle—Knowest thou the meaning of to-day?—it is well with thee. Answer it not; the solution for thee is a thing of teeth and claws."
Definitions of sphinx 
