Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A bird (Caprimulgus carolinensis) of the southern and central United States, resembling but larger than the whippoorwill.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The great goatsucker of Carolina, Antrostomus carolinensis, a fissirostral caprimulgine bird, with short rounded wings, long rounded tail, small feet and bill, the latter garnished with long rictal bristles giving off lateral filaments, and dark, much variegated coloration. It resembles the whippoor will and belongs to the same genus, but is much larger (about 12 inches long and 2 feet in extent of wings) and otherwise quite distinct. See cut under
Antrostomus .
Wiktionary
- n. Antrostomus carolinensis, a goatsucker of the southern United States.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zool.) A large whippoorwill-like bird (a species of goatsucker) (Caprimulgus carolinensis, formerly Antrostomus Carolinensis), of the southern United States; -- so called from its note.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large whippoorwill-like bird of the southern United States
Etymologies
- Imitative of its note. (Wiktionary)
- Imitative of its call. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Their weird cries are reflected in the common names for many of the species, e.g., whippoorwill, chuck-will's-widow, poorwill, poor-me-one, potoo, and pauraque.”
“Now they heard the distant baying of house-dogs, now the doleful call of the chuck-will's-widow, and once Mary's blood turned, for an instant, almost to ice at the unearthly shriek of the hoot owl just above her head.”
“There were many whippoorwills, or rather Brazilian birds related to them; they uttered at intervals through the night a succession of notes suggesting both those of our whippoorwill and those of our big chuck-will's-widow of the Gulf”
“The sough of the tidal surf breaking upon the beach, the occasional cry of a soaring sea-bird, or the more continuous and melancholy note of the chuck-will's-widow, do not attract their attention.”
“* Caprimulgus rufus called chuck-will's-widow, from a fancied resemblance of his notes to these words: they inhabit the maritime parts of Carolina and Florida, and are more than twice the size of the night hawk or whip-poor-will. and active mock-bird.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chuck-will's-widow’.
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birds
masked cardinal, bobwhite, masked lovebird, obscure honeyeater, creamy-rumped miner, laced woodpecker, robust lancetooth, purplish honeycre..., shining honeycreeper, honeycreeper, sugarbird, honeyeater and 122 more...
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technomom's Words
misology, sacerdotal, omphaloskepsis, jimjams, incunabulum, repose, trecento, chimera, tridecennary, tenebrous, purblind, floruit and 207 more...
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birds which sound their names
or part of them. I'm a bit sleepy, I think these need checking
kittiwake, chiffchaff, turtle dove, cuckoo, twite, hadeda ibis, crex crex, whippoorwill, peewit, chickadee, chough, knot and 35 more...
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Hyphenated Actual Words
These kind of stun me whenever I see them. Language is just so cool.
chuck-will's-widow, will-o-the-wisp, saw-whet, topsy-turvy, linsey-woolsey, ne'er-do-well, gung-ho, so-so, cul-de-sac, fleur-de-lys, service-berry, major-domo and 33 more...
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Widow's walk
widow's peak, widow's weeds, black widow, merry widow, golf widow, grass widow, war widow, widowmaker, widow's mite, widow and orphan, widow-and-orphan ..., widow's chamber and 18 more...
Tweets
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