Definitions
1.nounA creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion).
2.nounA person who keeps his/her thoughts and intentions secret; an enigmatic person.
3.nounA mandrill, Mandrillus sphinx, formerly classified a baboon, and called sphinx baboon.
4.nounA sphinx moth.
5.nounA sphincter.
6.verbTo decorate with sphinxes"a marble sphinxed chimney-piece"
7.verbTo adopt the posture of the Sphinx."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."
8.verbTo be inscrutable, often through silence"(1900) The sphinxèd riddle of the Universe / Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?"
9.verbTo make one guess at the unknowable"(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 ..."
10.verbTo befuddle"(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."
11.verbFor the feminine to co-opt, dominate, or devour the masculine, especially from a paranoid fear of this happening"(1986) modernism's fears of being sphinxed by a feminized mass culture"