cormorant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several large, widely distributed marine diving birds of the genus Phalacrocorax, having dark plumage, webbed feet, a slender hooked bill, and a distensible pouch.
2. n. A greedy, rapacious person.
3. adj. Greedy; rapacious.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A large totipalmate swimming and diving bird of the family Phalacrocoracidæ (which see for technical characters). There are about 25 species, of all parts of the world, much resembling one another, and all usually comprised in the single genus Phalacrocorax. They are mostly maritime, but some inhabit fresh waters; they are gregarious, and in the breeding season some species congregate by thousands to breed on rocky ledges over the sea, or in swamps, building a rude bulky nest, and laying from 1 to 3 whole-colored greenish eggs coated with a white chalky substance. Their principal food is flsh, and their voracity is proverbial. The common cormorant of America, Europe, and Asia, Phalacrocorax carbo, which may be taken as the type of the whole, is about 3 feet long and 5 in extent, with a heavy body, long sinuous neck, a stout hooked bill about as long as the head, a naked gular pouch, stout strong wings, and 14 stiff tail-feathers denuded to the bases. The color is lustrous black, bronzed on the back, where the feathers have black edges; the feet are black; in the breeding season there is a white flank-patch; and on the head are scattered white thready plumes. The same or a similar species is domesticated by the Chinese and Japanese and taught to flsh. A smaller species, the crested cormorant, P. cristatus, is found in Europe, and is known as the shag, a name also used for cormorants at large. The commonest North American species is the double-crested cormorant, P. dilophus, having only 12 tail-feathers (the number usual in the genus), the gular sac convex behind, and a crest on each side of the head. The Florida cormorant, which breeds by thousands in the mangrove swamps, is a variety of the last. On the Pacific coast of the United States several other species occur, as the violet-green cormorant (P. violaceus), the red-faced (P. bicristatus), the tufted (P. penicillatus), and others. The Mexican cormorant, P. mexicanus, is a small species which extends into the United States. A few species are largely white, and others are spotted.
2. n. A greedy fellow; a glutton.
3. n. A very avaricious person; a miser; a curmudgeon.
4. Having the qualities of a cormorant; greedy; rapacious; insatiable.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various medium-large black seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, especially the great cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo.
2. n. A voracious eater; a glutton.
3. adj. Ravenous, greedy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese.
2. n. A voracious eater; a glutton, or gluttonous servant.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. large voracious dark-colored long-necked seabird with a distensible pouch for holding fish; used in Asia to catch fish