Pelican definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (13)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

noun Any of various large, web-footed birds of the genus Pelecanus of tropical and warm regions, having a long straight bill from which hangs a distensible pouch of skin for catching and holding fish.

Century Dictionary (10)

A large piscivorous natatorial bird of the family Pelecanidæ and genus Pelecanus, having an enormously distensible gular pouch. Pelicans of some species are found in nearly all temperate and tropical countries. Deriving their whole sustenance from the water, they frequent lakes, rivers, and sea-coasts, and generally secure their prey by wading or swimming and scooping it into their pouches; though some, as the brown pelican, swoop down on the wing, like gannets. They breed usually on the ground near water, laying from one to three eggs, white-colored, equal-ended, and of rough texture. They are gregarious, and gather in immense companies at their breeding-resorts. The birds are about as large as swans, and their short legs constrain them to an awkward waddling gait, but their flight is easy, firm, and protracted. The sexes are colored alike. The plumage is in most cases white, variously tinted with yellow and rosy hues. The American white pelican, P.trachyrhynchus, is five feet long and eight or nine feet in extent of wings; the general plumage is white, with black primaries, and yellow lengthened plumes on the back of the head and on the breast. The bill is surmounted in the breeding-season by a curious horny crest which is deciduous. (See cut at rough-billed.) The brown pelican, P. fuscus, is of dark and varied colors, and rather smaller than the white species. The fable that the pelican wounds its own breast and feeds its young with the blood that flows from it has no foundation in fact so far as this bird is concerned. The young are fed on fish brought to the nest in the pouch, and doubtless often macerated to some extent in the gullet—a habit common to the other birds of the same order, as cormorants, gannets, etc. The myth probably arose in connection with the fabulous phenix, and may have been borne out by some facts which have been observed in the case of the flamingo (Phælnicopterus),possibly furthermore acquiring some plausibility, in its application to the pelican, from a redtint that is observable on the beak or plumage of some species. The pelican has from early times been considered as all emblem of charity. See also cut under totipalmate. The pelicane his blod did blede Ther-with his briddus for to feed; Thit be-tokenet on the rode Oure lord us fede with his blode. Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 172. On the one hand sits Charity, with a pelican on her head. Webster, Monuments of Honour. What, would'st thou have me turn Pelican, and feed thee out of my own Vitals? Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 7.
A chemical glass vessel or alembic with a tubulated capital, from which two opposite and crooked beaks pass out and enter again at the belly of the cucurbit. It is designed for continued distillation and cohobation, the volatile parts of the substance distilling, rising into the capital, and returning through the beaks into the cucurbit. Lembec, bolt's-head, retort, and pelican Had all been cinders. B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2.
A six-pounder culverin. Admiral Smyth.

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I'm confused on what's going on there, by the looks of it a pelican is about to bite him and the kid is heading for his groin. — Aussie-Nintendo.com Forums
He says a pelican has been taken in by the Tangalooma hospital as the first of many animals affected by the spill which the hospital expects to find. — Latest News - Yahoo!7 News
Spokesman Clive Cook said agency workers had caught and cleaned three of those _ a pelican, a turtle and a wading bird.
Spokesman Clive Cook said agency workers had caught and cleaned three of those - a pelican, a turtle and a wading bird. — Forbes.com: News
Spokesman Clive Cook said agency workers had caught and cleaned three of those-a pelican, a turtle and a wading bird. — Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

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bustard · heron · stork · flamingo · egrets · ibis · toucan · egret · curlew · magpie · gull · buzzard

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English pellican and from Old French pelican, both from Late Latin pelicānus, from Greek pelekan.

Century Dictionary (1)

Formerly also pellican, pelecan; from Middle English pelican, pelycan, pelicane, pellican, pellicane, from Anglo-Saxon pellican = French pelican = Provencal pellica, pelican = Spanish Portuguese pelicano = Italian pellicano = Dutch pelikaan = G. Swedish Danish Pelican, from Late Latin pelecanus, pelicanus, from Greek πελκάν, Middle Greek also πελεκῑνος, πελέκανος, or πελεκανός, a pelican. Cf. πελεκᾱς (πελεκαντ-), a woodpecker, from πεαλεκᾱν, hew or shape with an ax, from πέλεκυς, = Sanskrit Paraçu, an ax, a battle-ax.

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