Often incorrectly thought of as a snake reaching over 100 metres in length that can kill with a look, from the Harry Potter series of books.
The basilisk is actually a 5 centimetre half-cockerel half-snake. It is hatched from a cockerel's egg (not a hen's; a cockerel's) by a toad. It can turn anything living into stone by glancing at it.
Mythologically, it was killed by forcing it to look into a mirror.
A 100 ft tall chicken-snake that shoots cancerbeams from its eyes (causing extreme tumorous death). It also reserves the ability to rig governmentelections if it so chooses.
A catch all term, like 'cougar', for a particular kind of person. A 'Basilisk' is a goblinesque, tetchy, uncompromising, spiny rage-ball of either sex with an evil stare, diehard liberal principles and a marked loathing for popular culture and it's adherents - often encountered in indie bars where they are drawn like angry moths to the fairy lights and the sound of Amanda Palmer.
1: Check out that kooky chick in the dark corner, is she giving me the eye?
2: Yeah, the evil eye - it's a Basilisk! Run for your life or she might turn you to stone or give you a pamphlet about fracking, and don't wear that ironic slogan t-shirt out again, okay? It's like a red rag to these people.