Log in or Sign up
  1. popinjay love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A vain, talkative person.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A parrot.
  2. n. A woodpecker; especially, the green wood-pecker of Europe, Gecinus viridis.
  3. n. The figure of a parrot or other bird used as a mark for archery or firearms. For this purpose, it was usually hung to the top of a pole so as to swing in the wind.
  4. n. In heraldry, a parrot used as a bearing: always, unless otherwise mentioned in the blazon, represented green, with red legs and beak.
  5. n. A coxcomb; a fop.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A strutting supercilious person; a coxcomb, dandy, fop.
  2. n. dated A parrot
  3. n. UK A green woodpecker, Picus viridis.
  4. n. A wooden parrot, or similar object, stuck on a pole as a target to be shot at.
  5. n. A heraldic (or other) representation of a parrot.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The green woodpecker.
  2. n. A parrot.
  3. n. Scot. A target in the form of parrot.
  4. n. A trifling, chattering, fop or coxcomb.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an archaic term for a parrot
  2. n. a vain and talkative person (chatters like a parrot)

Etymologies

  1. Old French papegai ("a parrot"), either from Ancient Greek παπαγός (papagos) or from Spanish papagayo (also Modern Spanish), from Arabic babagha'. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, parrot, from Old French papegai, from Spanish papagayo or Old Provençal papagai, both from Arabic babġā', babaġā', from Persian babbaghā. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “_Item_, a pair of hose of popinjay green (they be well called popinjay) of thirty shillings.”

    Joyce Morrell's Harvest The Annals of Selwick Hall

  • “Hotspur's picture of this "popinjay" with pouncet-box in hand, and”

    The Man Shakespeare

  • “Might Hooper and Seidler have considered making Logue do the "popinjay" speech by”

    The Guardian World News

  • “Leftists accused him of "betrayal," it continued, and quoted one who had described him as a "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay".”

    The Guardian: Christopher Hitchens: He died too young, with too much left to say | Nick Cohen

  • “A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.”

    live-love-create

  • “Defending the absurd notion that the windbaggery of Mr. Galloway is somehow a threat to our national security, a spokesperson for the virginal Jason Kenney, Alykhan Velshi, referred to Gorgeous George as "someone who has provided financial support to Hamas, a banned terrorist organization in Canada, and someone who is, in a sense, a popinjay for those Taliban fighters who are trying to kill Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.”

    Archive 2009-03-01

  • “In 2005, George Galloway, UK Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, and ardent "pro-life" campaigner, famously referred to his arch-nemesis, Christopher Hitchens, as a "drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay.”

    Archive 2009-03-01

  • “Words come to mind that I can't print in their entirety, that the tribunal is full of petty popinjay chickens**ts.”

    On Public Universities And Guns

  • “That said, I cannot imagine she got the run around from popinjay Hitchens.”

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister?

  • “I cannot imagine she got the run around from popinjay Hitchens”

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister?

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. parrot

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. parrot
  1. egotist
  1. swellhead
  1. egoist

same context (17)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. fop
  2. gownd
  3. all-night-roasted
  1. jackdaw
  2. bank-clerk
  3. fribble
  1. cow-horse
  2. speakeasy
  3. cuteness
  1. way?
  2. flowchart
  3. sloven
  1. quisling
  2. d'orsay
  3. jewel-box
  1. lionlike
  2. hair-powder

reverse dictionary (18)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. witwal
  2. whetile
  3. wood-awl
  1. woodchuck
  2. woodhack
  3. woodknacker
  1. woodsucker
  2. yaffle
  3. papagay
  1. papejay
  2. popingay
  3. snapper
  1. sprite
  2. gecinus
  3. high-hoe
  1. awl
  2. hickwall
  3. wood-pie

tags (6)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. bird
  1. green
  1. blue
  1. avian
  1. archery
  1. nickname

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘popinjay’.

More lists containing ‘popinjay’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • garyth123 or fop Dec 4, 2008

  • reesetee Also a nickname for the Green Woodpecker. See also: yaffle. Dec 6, 2007

  • arby NOUN: A vain, talkative person.
    ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, parrot, from Old French papegai, from Spanish papagayo or Old Provençal papagai, both from Arabic bab’, baba’, from Persian babbagh. Jul 17, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for popinjay.

‘popinjay’ has been looked up 3903 times, loved by 14 people, added to 95 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 22.