gull

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“
Oh, help I help He shouted this frantically, but a wild and mournful cry from a gull was the only response, and his voice seemed to be utterly lost in the vast space around I shall have murdered the poor fellow," groaned Archy; and he stared about wildly again, in search of some means of getting to his adversary None--none whatever.

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Definitions (57)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Any of various chiefly coastal aquatic birds of the family Laridae, having long wings, webbed feet, a thick, slightly hooked beak, and usually gray and white plumage.
  2. noun A person who is easily tricked or cheated; a dupe.
  3. transitive verb To deceive or cheat.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (47)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • They are the great black-backed gull, which is the world's largest gull; the lesser black-backed gull, a European species first seen in Ohio in 1977; the black-legged kittiwake, which nests on cliffs and buildings; and the glaucous gull, which nests in the Arctic. —  dispatch.com: RSS
  • The gull is the hardy fisherman among the birds, ever on the edge of survival. —  The Martha's Vineyard Times News Headlines
  • Chickens and turkey influenza virus isolates have previously and incorrectly been lumped together with wild waterfowl, gull, and shorebird influenza viruses when determining rates of evolutionary change. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • Even though the gull was probably dead, Andy didn't feel it was right to act so cruel.
  • One Boeing 737 pilot writing about a strike in a safety report described the smell of burnt feathers and seabird after a gull was sucked into his rear engine during a landing at LaGuardia in 2004. —  New York News, Weather, Sports & Traffic - WCBSTV.com
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

heron ·  seagull ·  plover ·  sea-gull ·  curlew ·  pelican ·  falcon ·  tern ·  goose ·  hawk ·  vulture ·  sparrow
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English gulle, possibly of Brythonic origin.
  2. Probably from gull, to swallow (obsolete), from Middle English golen, to pretend to swallow, from gole, throat, perhaps from Old French goule; see gullet.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. from Middle English goll (rare), an unfledged bird, prob. from Icelandic golr, usually gulr = Sw. Danish gul, yellow (cf. gulaund), = English yellow, in reference to the yellow color of the beak (cf. French béjaune, a novice, literally ‘yellow-beak’), or, in the case of the gosling, to the yellow color of the young feathers: see yellow.
  2. from gull, n., 5, 6.
  3. from Cornish gullan = Welsh gwylan = Breton gwelan, a gull. Cf. guillemot.
  4. Early modern English gul, gulle; a variant of gole, gool. Cf. gullet, gully.
  5. Cf. gull, n., gully, v.
  6. Cf. gully, gully, gullet.
 

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/gəl/
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