heron

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He stamped his long legs on the ground and said all sorts of mean things, just because Bully didn’t want to be eaten up Now I wonder how I’m going to get away from here without that bird biting me?” thought poor Bully, after a while Well, it did seem a hard thing to do, for the heron was there waiting for Bully to come out, when he would jab his bill right through the frog boy.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Any of various wading birds of the family Ardeidae, having a long neck, long legs, a long pointed bill, and usually white, gray, or bluish-gray plumage.

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Examples (50)

  • Other curious local names of birds in Worcestershire are “Blue Isaac” for hedge sparrow, “mumruffin” for long-tailed tit, “maggot” for magpie, and the heron is always called “bittern” (really quite a distinct bird). —  Grain and Chaff from an English Manor
  • For the bird was a heron, which is something like a stork that lives on chimneys in a country called Holland. —  Bully and Bawly No-Tail
  • He stamped his long legs on the ground and said all sorts of mean things, just because Bully didn’t want to be eaten up Now I wonder how I’m going to get away from here without that bird biting me?” thought poor Bully, after a while Well, it did seem a hard thing to do, for the heron was there waiting for Bully to come out, when he would jab his bill right through the frog boy. —  Bully and Bawly No-Tail
  • In England, although the heron is a native, we rarely seem to see him; while to study him is extremely difficult. —  A Wanderer in Holland
  • Soon the attack would begin, and Owen remembered that the heron is armed with a beak on which a hawk might be speared, for is it not recorded that to defend himself the heron has raised his head and spitted the descending hawk, the force of the blow breaking the heron's neck and both birds coming down dead together Now will this happen?" —  Sister Teresa
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. (1) Early modern English also hearon; from Middle English heroun, heyroun, heiron, from Old French hairon, also heron, French héron, dial. égron = Provencal aigron = Spanish airon = Catalan agro = Italian aghirone, airone, a heron; with augmentative suffix -on, -one, from Old High German heigir, Middle High German heiger, a heron,= Icelandic hegri = Swedish häger = Danish hejre, a heron. (2) The Scandinavian forms answer better to Old High German hehara, a magpie, a jay, Middle High German heher, German heher, häher, a jay, jackdaw, = Anglo-Saxon higora, higera, a magpie, or jay-woodpecker (cf. English dial. heighaw, a woodpecker). (3) A third group of forms appears in Middle High German reiger, German reiher = Middle Low German reiger = Dutch reiger = Old Saxon hreiera = Anglo-Saxon hrāgra, a heron. These groups are not related, except as they may all be ult. imitative. Cf. Welsh cregyr, a screamer, a heron, from creg, cryg, hoarse; Latin graculus, gracculus, a jackdaw; and English crake and crow. From the same source (Old High German through Old French) comes English egret, q. v. Hence contr. hern, q. v.
 

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/ˈhɛrən/
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