SPHINXES

To decorate with sphinxes

Example: "A marble sphinxed chimney-piece"

To adopt the posture of the sphinx.

Example: "A hot lion with a very bloated stomach ... will adopt either a sphinxed or a squatting posture which takes some of the weight off its belly."

To be inscrutable, often through silence

Example: "(1900) the sphinxèd riddle of the universe / nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?"

To make one guess at the unknowable

Example: "(1933) perhaps nature is sphinxing us on purpose. whatever her objects may be, perhaps she gets her work done better when she appeals to our gambling instincts. if you knew for certain exactly how your marriage was going to turn out ..."

To befuddle

Example: "(2010) she swiveled and sphinxed giles. 'and you, i suppose you've never been here either?' giles squirmed. 'well, i – that is, miss wh—, i mean, miss taylor, i –' he looked to me for rescue."

For the feminine to co-opt, dominate, or devour the masculine, especially from a paranoid fear of this happening

Example: "(1986) modernism's fears of being sphinxed by a feminized mass culture"