nutcracker

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An implement used to crack nuts, typically consisting of two hinged metal levers between which the nut is squeezed.
2. n. Any of various birds of the genus Nucifraga, especially N. caryocatactes of northern Eurasia and N. columbiana of western North America, that are related to the crow and feed chiefly on the seeds of pine cones.
3. n. See nuthatch.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An instrument for cracking hard-shelled nuts.
2. n. A toy, usually having a grotesque human head, in the yawning mouth of which a nut is placed to be cracked by a screw or lever.
3. n. plural The pillory.
4. n. A corvine bird of Europe and Asia, Nucifraga caryocatactes, belonging to the order Passeres, family Corvidæ, and subfamily Garrulinæ. See cut at Nucifraga. The bird is about 12½ inches long, and is brown, with many bold oblong or drop-shaped white spots. The corresponding Asiatic species is N. hemispila.
5. n. The nuthatch, Sitta cæsia.

Wiktionary

1. n. An implement for cracking nuts.
2. n. Either of two birds of the genus Nucifraga in the crow family.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An instrument for cracking nuts.
2. n. A European bird (Nucifraga caryocatactes), allied to the magpie and crow. Its color is dark brown, spotted with white. It feeds on nuts, seeds, and insects.
3. n. The American, or Clarke's, nutcracker (Picicorvus Columbianus) of Western North America.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a compound lever used to crack nuts open
2. n. speckled birds that feed on nuts
3. n. any of various small short-tailed songbirds with strong feet and a sharp beak that feed on small nuts and insects