Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A goatsucker, especially Caprimulgus europaeus of Europe, having gray and brown mottled plumage with long, slender white wings and a short bill.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bird, Caprimulgus europæus, of the family Caprimulgidæ. The name is sometimes extended to all the goatsuckers or birds of the same family. Also called night-churr, night-crow, churn-owl, fern-owl, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various medium-sized nocturnal birds of the family Caprimulgidae, that feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A goatsucker, esp. the European species. See
Illust. of goatsucker.
WordNet 3.0
- n. mainly crepuscular or nocturnal nonpasserine birds with mottled greyish-brown plumage and large eyes; feed on insects
Etymologies
- night + jar2 (from its harsh call). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Our nightjar was a few metres away, but she betrayed no anxiety except to keep her pale lids fractionally open so that we could see a third of her liquid dark eyes.”
“Posted in Other Horror Things | Tagged chapbook, horror, Horror Fiction, michael marshall smith, nightjar press, review, short story, stephen jones, the mammoth book of best new horror 19 | 1 Comment”
“Posted in Other Horror Things | Tagged michael marshall smith, nightjar press, what happens when you wake up in the night, ellen datlow, the year's best horror 2, the best horror of the year 2 | Leave a Comment”
“There is a glorious passage by Henry Thoreau of his encounter with a nightjar relative called a nighthawk.”
“Somehow all of that nightjar inheritance was there before us in her all-seeing, stone-like quiescence.”
“Posted in Other Horror Things, tagged michael marshall smith, nightjar press, what happens when you wake up in the night, ellen datlow, the year's best horror 2, the best horror of the year 2 on January 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »”
“A wing was all that was known of an Ethiopian nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, but adventurous birdwatchers managed to spot it, though they weren't able to capture it.”
“The national park is, of course, gorgeous, home to bats, cute ickle ponies and the odd nightjar.”
“April 24th, 2008 at 5: 52 pm nightjar guess not, sorry about that.”
“April 24th, 2008 at 7: 41 pm nightjar but if it were not for the commenters and readership, this weblog would be little more than an insane person walking down the cybersphere ranting to himself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nightjar’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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birds
masked cardinal, bobwhite, masked lovebird, obscure honeyeater, creamy-rumped miner, laced woodpecker, robust lancetooth, purplish honeycre..., shining honeycreeper, honeycreeper, sugarbird, honeyeater and 122 more...
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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be-tween the wings
monoplane, wheatear, synallaxine, fritillary, nightjar, morning-a-jar, evening-jarred, fieldfare, centre, accipiter, motmot, geometrid and 43 more...
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Obtuphemisms
Absurd euphemisms to reference who-knows-what.
parking spot, unbirdly, business juice, prairie rocket, styrofoam feelings, copulative compound, interestingnessfu..., pregnant pause, information package, endowment effect, netherlands, toxic assets and 31 more...
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More Bird Wirds: North America
Birds endemic to the United States and/or North America.
toucan, peacock, weaver, bullfinch, redpoll, siskin, crossbill, finch, rosy-finch, oriole, cowbird, blackbird and 213 more...
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Animals (besides pottos)
.
robin, wagtail, frog, bunny, pronk, rabbit, fur, badger, mouse, bee, crepuscular, purr and 140 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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✿
adamantine, almond, alpenglow, amaranth, amaranthine, amaretto, amarelle, amethyst, anacampserote, ampersand, andromeda, anemone and 153 more...
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birds which sound their names
or part of them. I'm a bit sleepy, I think these need checking
kittiwake, chiffchaff, turtle dove, cuckoo, twite, hadeda ibis, crex crex, whippoorwill, peewit, chickadee, chough, knot and 35 more...
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it's my bloody list and i'll put what...
(CONFOUND IT ALL AND ANYONE WHO DOTH PROTEST MAY HENCEFORTH SHOVE IT, whatever "it" may be) Basically this is where the shining little rosebuds of my wordynerdy pleasure centers come to file neatly...
psychopomp, nightjar, whippoorwill, Kombolói, koan, slype, lotic, kain, olid, garboil, caryopsis, culch and 23 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nightjar.
Comments
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