Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several large sea ducks, especially of the genus Somateria of northern regions, having soft, commercially valuable down and predominantly black and white plumage in the male.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as eiderduck.
- n. Same as eider-down.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of the species of the genera Polysticta or Somateria, in the seaduck subfamily Merginae, which line their nests with fine down (taken from their own bodies).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any species of sea duck of the genus Somateria, esp. Somateria mollissima, which breeds in the northern parts of Europe and America, and lines its nest with fine down (taken from its own body) which is an article of commerce; -- called also
eider duck . The American eider (S. Dresseri), the king eider (S. spectabilis), and the spectacled eider (Arctonetta Fischeri) are related species.
WordNet 3.0
- n. duck of the northern hemisphere much valued for the fine soft down of the females
Etymologies
- From Icelandic æðar, genitive of æðr, probably reaching English via Swedish eider (now ejder), from a North Germanic root. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from eiderdown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Iceland, there is a bird called the eider duck, which is much valued on account of the soft and beautiful down which grows upon its breast, and is used for pillows and counterpanes, being wonderfully light, warm and elastic.”
“After seeing that, I really wanted something by Roni, so I got one of her images of these eider duck nests that are really protected there because people want their feathers.”
The Wall Street Journal: Agnes Gund Focuses on the Female Vision
“They might have been either murres or eider ducks; we didn't have the binoculars, so we're not sure.”
"While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy, high..."
“The wind and rain lashed a peridot sea, and the only sign of life we spotted was a lone eider duck bobbing in the surf well away from shore.”
“Mar. 5th, 2010 01: 25 am (UTC) "The wind and rain lashed a peridot sea, and the only sign of life we spotted was a lone eider duck bobbing in the surf well away from shore.”
“Just offshore some mallard and pintail – birds usually found on fresh water – were bobbing up and down on the waves, along with two truly marine ducks, an eider and a common scoter.”
“For bird species that are already of conservation concern such as the golden-cheeked warbler, whooping crane, and spectacled eider, the added vulnerability to climate change may hasten declines or prevent recovery.”
“Dats wut happnd befoar band eet wudn mii lawg in tu mai purrfyle eider!”
Nobody’s stripes - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Polar bears, walruses, seals, whales and ocean-going birds like eider ducks and loons call the Arctic Ocean home.”
“In the western Palearctic, the king eider has been delineated into two broadly distributed breeding populations in North America, in the western and eastern Arctic, on the basis of banding (ringing) data [50] and of isotopic signatures of their diet while on wintering grounds [51].”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘eider’.
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Mobying Along
looks like there's not an open Moby Dick list. So now there is.
hypos, Manhattoes, circumambulate, mole, grapnels, bowsprit, asphaltic, mazy, tranced, cataract, ungraspable, judgmatically and 227 more...
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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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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 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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Animals (besides pottos)
.
robin, wagtail, frog, bunny, pronk, rabbit, fur, badger, mouse, bee, crepuscular, purr and 140 more...
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G...R...E
gross.
sybarite, restiveness, churl, nepotism, jingoism, pusillanimous, gaffe, incisive, enervate, bucolic, concomitant, abeyance and 158 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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Alaric's Words
chelation, bradykinetic, twelfth, dank, kulak, oneiric, cathexis, yonder, quern, lissome, naiad, krakatoan and 124 more...
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miscellanea
antimacassar, snootful, sessile, glagolitic, marrowsky, farrago, keel, calumny, rheum, talisman, tally, awry and 508 more...
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Just ducky
bufflehead, merganser, canvasback, muscovy, smew, pochard, shoveler, goosander, teal, seaduck, sheldrake, mallard and 66 more...
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.avian
cassowary, chanticleer, rook, peregrine, lark, kestrel, linnet, thrush, wren, crane, fantail, brant and 36 more...
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birdie
bird names that are fun to say
coot, grackle, hoatzin, jay, barnacle goose, skua, rook, grosbeak, junco, chickadee, waxwing, nuthatch and 49 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for eider.
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