Ăm'a-zon, n.

n. [Lat. amazon, Gr. ἀμαζών, usually in pl., derived from a priv. and μαζός, the breast, from the fable that the Amazons cut off their right breast, that it might not incommode them in shooting and hurling the javelin. In works of art, the right breast is, therefore, usually hidden.] One of a fabulous race of female warriors, who founded an empire on the coast of the Euxine; — hence, a warlike or masculine woman; a virago.

Amazon ant (Entom.), a species of ants (Formica rufescens), whose neuters capture the larvæ and nymphs of other species in order to obtain workers for their own uses. Encyc. Am.