plover

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various widely distributed wading birds of the family Charadriidae, having rounded bodies, short tails, and short bills.
2. n. Any of various similar or related birds.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bird of the family Charadriidæ and genus Charadrius, C. pluvialis. This bird, more fully called the golden, yellow, or green plover, is very widely distributed in the Old World, breeding in high latitudes, and performing extensive migrations during the spring and fall. It is about 10½ inches long and 22½ in extent of wings, the wing 7 inches, the bill inch, the tarsus 1¾ inches. The upper parts are black, and profusely spotted with yellow and white; the under parts are black in the breeding-dress, whitish in winter, variously mottled or speckled during the changes of plumage. The bill and feet are black; the feet are three-toed. The plover lays four eggs, inches long by 1⅓ broad, of a piriform shape, drab color, with heavy brownish or blackish blotches.
2. n. Hence Some or any bird of the family Charadriidæ; a charadriomorphic grallatorial bird. The American golden plover, or field-plover, is Charadrius dominious, very closely resembling C. pluvialis, but having ashy-gray instead of white axillars. The Swiss buillbead, or blackbellied plover, is Squatarola helvetica, inhabiting most parts of the world, and having four toes. (See cut under Squatarola.) Many small plovers with white under parts, and rings or bands of black on the head, neck, or breast, are known as ring-plovers or ringnecks, and mostly belong to the genus Æalites. (See also killdee.) The most singular of these is the crook-billed plover, Anarhynchus frontalis, having the bill bent sidewise. It inhabits new Zealand. The mountain-plover of the western United States is Podasncys montanus. Some plovers are known as dotterels. (See dotterel and Eudromias.) The thickknees, stone-plovers, or stone-curlews are birds of the family Œdicnemidæ. (See cut under (Edicnemus.) Stilt-plovers are the stilts, Himantopinæ. (See cut under stilt.) The crab-plover is Dromas ardeola. “Plovers' eggs,” so called in England, are laid by the lapwing, Vanellus cristatus.
3. n. In various parts of the United States, the Bartramian sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, more fully called upland, highland, pasture, field, corn-field, prairie, grass, and plain plover. See cut under Bartramia.
4. n. The greater or lesser yellowshanks, Totanus melanoleucus or T. flavipes, commonly called yellow-legged plovers. [Local, U. S.] A loose woman: otherwise called a quail.
5. n. The black-heart plover. [Local, U. S.]
6. n. The golden plover when young. [Ireland.]
7. n. Sqvatarola helvetica
8. n. The Norfolk plover. [Various localities.]

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various wading birds of the family Charadriidae.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of limicoline birds belonging to the family Charadridæ, and especially those belonging to the subfamily Charadrinsæ. They are prized as game birds.
2. n. (Zoöl.) Any grallatorial bird allied to, or resembling, the true plovers, as the crab plover (Dromas ardeola); the American upland, plover (Bartramia longicauda); and other species of sandpipers.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of numerous chiefly shorebirds of relatively compact build having straight bills and large pointed wings; closely related to the sandpipers