Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rust-brown and white sandpiper (Calidris alpina) native to northern regions of North America, Europe, and Asia.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The red-backed sandpiper, Tringa (Pelidna) alpina, widely dispersed and very abundant in the northern hemisphere, especially along sea-coasts, during the extensive migrations it performs between its arctic breeding-grounds and its temperate or tropical winter resorts. The dunlin is 8 inches long, the bill an inch or more, slightly decurved; in full dress the belly is jet-black, the upper parts varied with brown, gray, and reddish. The American dunlin is a different variety, somewhat larger, with a longer or more decurved bill, the Pelidna pacifica of Coues. The dunlin is also called stint, purre, ox-bird, bull's-eye, sea-snipe, pickerel, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. A small wading bird, Calidris alpina, found along the coast and with a distinctive black belly patch in its breeding plumage. A type of stint.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A species of sandpiper (Tringa alpina); -- called also
churr ,dorbie ,grass bird , andred-backed sandpiper . It is found both in Europe and America.
WordNet 3.0
- n. small common sandpiper that breeds in northern or Arctic regions and winters in southern United States or Mediterranean regions
Etymologies
- dun2 + -lin(g)1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A shorebird called the dunlin is found by the thousands in the reserve.”
“The Severn Estuary, where the celebrated naturalist Sir Peter Scott founded Slimbridge, the wildfowl refuge which became one of the world's most famous nature reserves, provides an 86,000-acre feeding ground for wild swans, geese and many thousands of wading birds, such as dunlin, turnstone, oystercatcher and ringed plover, from all over Europe.”
“I thought it dangerously late in the season for controlled heather burning, a real threat to ground nesting birds like red grouse and dunlin.”
“He comes to see the curlews and dunlin, the Brent geese and sparrowhawks, "no longer . . . as representatives of their species" but as individual beings, with homes, ages and "histories.”
“But it is the dunlin which are the most methodical.”
“We could imagine the plaintive call of curlews just back from some salty estuary and the solitary piping of a dunlin, seemingly lost in all that bogland waste.”
“Arctic breeding shorebirds such as the dunlin, whimbrel and western sandpiper converge on the rich feeding grounds along the coasts from Louisiana to Florida.”
“Breeding origin and migration pattern of dunlin ( '' Calidris alpina '') revealed by mitochondrial DNA analysis.”
Late-Quaternary changes in arctic terrestrial ecosystems, climate, and ultraviolet radiation levels
“Species such as red knot ( '' Calidris canutus '') and ruddy turnstone ( '' Arenaria interpres '') are inferred to have had much larger populations and more extensive breeding areas during glacial stages, although others, such as dunlin ( '' C. alpina ''), exhibit evidence of range fragmentation during glacial stages leading to the evolution of distinct geographically restricted infraspecific taxa.”
Late-Quaternary changes in arctic terrestrial ecosystems, climate, and ultraviolet radiation levels
“Flotsam gives shelter to sandflies and other food for the small flocks of wading birds that kept wheeling in like a single organism, landing or taking off on the instant in perfect unison: sandlings, ringed plover, gadwall and dunlin.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dunlin’.
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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More Bird Wirds: North America
Birds endemic to the United States and/or North America.
toucan, peacock, weaver, bullfinch, redpoll, siskin, crossbill, finch, rosy-finch, oriole, cowbird, blackbird and 213 more...
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Alaska
Names of places, animals, plants, people, etc. found in and around Alaska.
grizzly, coho, roe, koyukon, chinook, sockeye, king salmon, chum, dog salmon, kipper, kelt, baggit and 221 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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October List
sposh, jowlop, slampamp, spot rump, finikin, livedo, nidget, mulmul, mugient, olm, pawl, dapifer and 76 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dunlin.
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