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  1. cassowary love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of several large flightless birds of the genus Casuarius of Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent areas, having a large bony projection on the top of the head and brightly colored wattles.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A large struthious bird of the genus Casuarius, subfamily Casuariinæ, and family Casuariidæ, inhabiting Australia and the Papuan islands. It resembles the ostrich, and is nearly as large, but has shorter and thicker legs in proportion, and three toes. It is characterized by a ratite sternum, plumage with large aftershafts, rudimentary wings represented externally by several spine-like processes, fleshy caruncles or lappets upon the throat, and a large casque or helmet upon the head. It runs with great rapidity, outstripping the swiftest horse. The cassowary leaves its few eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A large flightless bird of the genus Casuarius, native to Australia and New Guinea, with a characteristic bony crest on its head, and can be very dangerous.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) A large bird, of the genus Casuarius, found in the east Indies. It is smaller and stouter than the ostrich. Its head is armed with a kind of helmet of horny substance, consisting of plates overlapping each other, and it has a group of long sharp spines on each wing which are used as defensive organs. It is a shy bird, and runs with great rapidity. Other species inhabit New Guinea, Australia, etc.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. large black flightless bird of Australia and New Guinea having a horny head crest

Etymologies

  1. From Malay kasuari. (Wiktionary)
  2. Malay kesuari. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. ratite bird
  1. ratite
  1. flightless bird

same context (23)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. zareba
  2. emu
  3. versionof
  4. osprey
  1. Rhea
  2. endcap
  3. new-laid
  4. whaleman
  1. foot-page
  2. flightless
  3. grayhound
  4. viewings
  1. sparrow hawk
  2. flyblown
  3. party...architecture
  4. shakey
  1. vulturine
  2. blackfellow
  3. guanaco
  4. inject
  1. battlegroup
  2. swabbie
  3. boy-friend

reverse dictionary (10)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. galea
  2. mooruk
  1. bush-tailed
  2. emu
  1. duk-duk
  2. brevipennate
  1. casuary
  2. acanthopterous
  1. galeate
  2. struthiones

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. bird
  1. australia
  1. avian
  1. flightless

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  • jaime_d From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
    "And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne." Jan 19, 2010

  • chained_bear "'Do you think it really useful to discuss these remote hypotheses? If you were to ask me about the tertian ague or the osteology of the cassowary I could give you a reasonable answer...'"
    —Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 358 Feb 9, 2008

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‘cassowary’ has been looked up 1806 times, loved by 4 people, added to 21 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 17.