Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name of the towhee bunting, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, a fringilline bird of the United States. Also called ground-robin and marsh-robin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) An american bird (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) of the Finch family, so called from its note; -- called also rufous-sided towhee, towhee, towhee bunting and ground robin.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bird, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, the Eastern towhee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun common towhee of eastern North America

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative of its call.]

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Examples

  • It is no "chewink" at all, but almost as close a reproduction of a cat's mew as is the catbird's well-known call.

    Birds of the Rockies 1896

  • In his attire he closely resembles the towhee, or "chewink," of the East, but has as an extra ornament a beautiful sprinkling of white on his back and wings, which makes him look as if he had thrown a gauzy mantle of silver over his shoulders.

    Birds of the Rockies 1896

  • On the third or fourth of May I saw a loon in the pond, and during the first week of the month I heard the whip-poor-will, the brown thrasher, the veery, the wood pewee, the chewink, and other birds.

    Walden 2004

  • His habit is continued in the spring by the towhee, or chewink, who uses the same methods, throwing both feet backward simultaneously.

    The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919

  • From -- -- one could not see where, came a vireo, and almost at the same time a chewink had something to say.

    The Harvester 1911

  • The chewink in his harlequin suit of black, white, and chestnut varies his sharp and cheerful "Chewink" with a musical little strain, "Do-fah, fah-fah-fah-fah," and one of the white-throated sparrows now and then stops feeding and flies up to a hazel twig to give his sweet and plaintive little "pea-a-body, peabody, peabody."

    Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905

  • That is why the chewink sings so happily from dawn till dark.

    Some Summer Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905

  • Her eyes missed nothing; her dainty close-set ears heard all -- the short, dry note of a chewink, the sweet, wholesome song of the cardinal, the thrilling cries of native jays and woodpeckers, the heavenly outpoured melody of the Florida wren, perched on some tiptop stem, throat swelling under the long, delicate, upturned bill.

    The Firing Line 1899

  • My notes say that it is "a cross between the song of the chewink and that of dickcissel," and I shall stand by that assertion until I find good reason to disown it -- should that time ever come.

    Birds of the Rockies 1896

  • Some crows followed the workers at a distance, hunting for grains of corn, and over in the woods, a chewink scratched and rustled among the deep leaves as it searched for grubs.

    At the Foot of the Rainbow Gene Stratton-Porter 1893

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