falcon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various birds of prey of the family Falconidae and especially of the genus Falco, having a short, curved beak and long, pointed, powerful wings adapted for swift flight.
2. n. Any of several birds of these or related species, such as hawks, trained to hunt small game.
3. n. A female bird of this type used in falconry.
4. n. A small cannon in use from the 15th to the 17th century.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A diurnal bird of prey, not a vulture; especially, a hawk used in falconry. The birds used in hawking belong to one of two groups: Falcons proper in an ornithological sense (see def. 2 ), belonging to the restricted genus Falco, of which the peregrine is the type. These birds rise above the quarry and stoop to it by dashing down from on high; they are most highly esteemed for hawking, and called noble.
2. n. In ornithology:
3. n. One of the Falconidæ.
4. n. One of the Falconidæ.
5. n. Specifically, a bird of the genus Falco. The species are numerous, and are found in nearly all parts of the world. One of the best-known and most nearly cosmopolitan is the peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus, which has many varieties or subspecies, as the duck-hawk of North America, F. peregrinus, var. anatum. (See cut under duck-hawk.) The gerfalcons are a race of boreal falcons, of large size and usually of more or less white or light coloration. Most of the falcons have special English names, as saker, jugger, merlin, hobby, etc. See the phrases below.
6. n. In falconry, a female falcon, as distinguished from the male, which is about a third smaller, and is known as a tercel, tiercel, or tiercelet. See haggard.
7. n. A kind of cannon in use in the sixteenth century. It is said to have had a bore of two and a half inches and to have carried a shot of two pounds weight. The French regulations of Henry II. fix the weight of the shot at one pound one ounce poids du roi (not quite one and a quarter pounds English).
8. n. Same as femoral falcon.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any bird of the genus Falco, all of which are birds of prey.
2. v. To hunt with a falcon or falcons.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One of a family (Falconidæ) of raptorial birds, characterized by a short, hooked beak, strong claws, and powerful flight.
2. n. Any species of the genus Falco, distinguished by having a toothlike lobe on the upper mandible; especially, one of this genus trained to the pursuit of other birds, or game.
3. n. (Gun.) An ancient form of cannon.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. hunt with falcons
2. n. diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight