Migration definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (18)

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noun The act or an instance of migrating.
noun A group migrating together.
noun Chemistry & Physics The movement of one atom or more from one position to another within a molecule.

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The act of migrating; change of residence or habitat; removal or transit from one locality or latitude to another, especially at a distance. Among animals, the most extensive and regular migrations are performed by birds during spring and fall, and in a general way along meridians of longitude, the vernal migration being northward, the autumnal southward. This is ordinary or equatorial migration. In cold and temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere nearly all insectivorous birds perforin migration. Some, as sandpipers, which breed only in high latitudes, may be dispersed during their migration over a great part of the world. Others, as swallows, are noted not only for the extent but for the rapidity and regularity of their movements, their arrival and departure being capable of prediction with considerable accuracy. The migration of many water-fowls is scarcely less notable in the same respects. Migration seems to be determined, primarily and chiefly, by conditions of food-supply, but this does not fully account for the apparently needless extent and the wonderful periodicity of the movement, nor for the fact that individuals sometimes return to exactly the same spot to breed again, after passing the winter perhaps thousands of miles away. Migrations of mammals are more irregular than those of birds, less definitely related to latitude and longitude, and more obviously dependent upon food-supply: such are the excursions, often in enormous hordes, of various arctic animals, as lemmings and other rodents, reindeer, musk-oxen, foxes, etc. Such movements do not appear to be specially related to reproduction. Many fishes migrate from and back to the sea, ascending rivers to spawn, as is notably the case with anadromous fishes of the salmou and herring families; with eels the case is reversed; with many fishes the catadromous migration is between deeper and shallower, or colder and warmer, salt water. Periodical migration is also marked with certain insects. Thus, Anosia plexippus, the milkweed-butterfly, migrates southward in the fall to hibernate in the pine woods of the southern United States. The faculty which enables or compels animals to migrate has been named the “instinct of migration”; but the phrase is rather a statement of fact than an explanation of the phenomenon, except in so far as this instinct may be regarded as originating in and being highly developed from the simple necessity of moving about to secure food. All our adventures were by the fireside; and all our migrations from the blue bed to the brown. Goldsmith, Vicar. Adventures that beguiled and cheered Their grave migration. Wordsworth, Excursion, vii. Our remote forefathers must have made endless earlier migrations as parts of the great Aryan body, as parts of the smaller Teutonic body. But our voyage from the Low-Dutch mainland to the isle of Britain was our first migration as a people. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 31.
A number of animals migrating together; the total of the individuals or species which perform any particular migration; also, the time or period occupied in migrating Change of place; removal. Such alterations, transitions, migrations, of the centre of gravity, and elevations of new islands, had actually happened. Woodward, Essay towards a Nat. Hist. of the [Earth. (Latham.)
Residence in a foreign country; banishment. Wo is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, with such animosity, as if it were the worst of enemies, and meet to be adjudged to a perpetual migration. Bp. Hall, Invisible World, The Epistle.

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This first night of the migration was always a time for gatherings and renewal of friendships. — Robin Hobb
Points-based system a new points-based system (PBS) for controlling migration, which is being phased in over the next two years and will replace all of the categories described above. — LearnHub Activities
Legalizing 12 million illegal immigrants will substantially increase our population: Chain-migration occurs when an immigrant becomes a citizen. — Migra Matters
The delegates to the congress will explore solutions to not only stop but reverse this migration which is depleting the Assyrian homeland of its rightful inhabitants. — Assyrian International News Agency
Paula Terrasi, a former wildlife biologist, said the migration is an important part of the salamanders 'life cycle, so it's good that groups in many New England towns spend time salamandering. — Nashuatelegraph.com local, state, business and sports news

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migration

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