egret

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In the telephoto shots that follow, the egret was awaiting a handout from a nearby fisherman and allowed me a lot closer than prudence would ordinarily dictate, while the surfer was just too far away for the long end of the lens to overcome.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Any of several usually white herons of the genera Bubulcus, Casmerodius, Egretta, and related genera, characteristically having long, showy, drooping plumes during the breeding season.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • And here, too, we found the nests of several large species-egret, night-heron, cormorant, and occasionally a hawk-birds which build on trees in forest districts, but here on the treeless region of the pampas they made their nests among the rushes. —  Far Away And Long Ago
  • Levi entered the hut and began to sing in guttural chants, stretching his stocky frame to appear gaunt as he paced up and down in stilted egret-like steps while beating his chest. —  Omni: March 1995
  • But I remember one there called the egret, that had a long yellow beak. —  Golem in the Gears
  • In the telephoto shots that follow, the egret was awaiting a handout from a nearby fisherman and allowed me a lot closer than prudence would ordinarily dictate, while the surfer was just too far away for the long end of the lens to overcome. —  DigitalCameraReview.com Digital Camera News and Reviews
  • The camera did a pretty good job dealing with difficult high contrast images, such as the egret with the darker water in the background seen early on in the review: a review of the histogram for this image shows only slight highlight clipping. —  DigitalCameraReview.com Digital Camera News and Reviews
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French aigrette, from Old Provençal aigreta, from aigron, heron, of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also, in some senses, aigret, aigrette, formerly egrett, egrette, ægret; from French aigrette, a sort of heron, a tuft of feathers, a tuft, a cluster (of diamonds, etc.), the down of seeds, etc., diminutive of Old French *aigre, *aigron, modern French dial. égron, found in Old French only with loss of the guttural, hiron, modern F. héron, a heron, whence English heron: see heron.
 

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/ˈigrɛt/
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