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  1. merle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. See blackbird.
  2. adj. Having a reddish or bluish gray coat streaked or speckled with black. Used of certain dogs.
  3. n. A dog with a merle coat.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A type of mottled colouration on dogs.
  2. n. The European blackbird Turdus merula; any blackbird.

Etymologies

  1. From the taxonomic name; from Latin turdus ("thrush") and merula ("blackbird"), giving rise to the French merle. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin merulus, merula.Perhaps from merle1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. thrush

same context (11)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. muscat
  2. homme
  1. vin
  2. mockingbird
  1. leveret
  2. chillin
  1. under-performance
  2. goldfinch
  1. anyone
  2. mavis
  1. forty-minute

rhymes (26)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Berle
  2. Curl
  3. Earl
  4. Earle
  5. Erl
  1. Pearl
  2. Perl
  3. Perle
  4. Shirl
  5. birle
  1. burl
  2. curl
  3. earl
  4. earle
  5. girl
  1. herl
  2. hurl
  3. kerl
  4. merl
  5. pearl
  1. shirl
  2. swirl
  3. twirl
  4. unfurl
  5. whirl
  1. whorl

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. melle
  1. merl
  1. blackbird
  1. merle

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. color
  1. bird
  1. gray
  1. cvccv

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Lists

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Comments

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  • treeseed "Merle is a color combination in dogs’ coats. It is a solid base color (usually red/brown or black) with lighter blue/gray or reddish patches, which gives a mottled or uneven speckled effect. Although most breeds that can have merle coats also typically have white markings (such as around the neck, under the belly, and so on), and often tan points (typically between the white and the darker parts of the coat), these are separate colors from the merle; some dogs do appear completely merled with no white or tan markings.

    Merle can also alter other colors and patterns besides the usual red or black. These combinations such as Brindle Merle or Liver Merle are not typically accepted in breed standards.

    In addition to altering base coat color, merle also modifies eye color and coloring on the nose and paw pads. The merle gene modifies the dark pigment in the eyes, occasionally changing dark eyes to blue, or part of the eye to be colored blue. Since merle causes random modifications, however, both dark-eyed, blue-eyed, and odd-colored eyes. Color on paw pads and nose may be mottled pink and black."
    _Wikipedia
    Jan 24, 2008

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‘merle’ has been looked up 1518 times, added to 12 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 7.