raven

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In three lines of an old Celtic death song, we find three similes Black as the raven was his brow Sharp as a razor was his spear White as lime was his skin We look in Anglo-Saxon poetry in vain for a touch like this Sweetly a bird sang on a pear tree above the head of Gwenn before they covered him with a turf.

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Definitions (28)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A large bird (Corvus corax) having black plumage and a croaking cry.
  2. adjective Black and shiny: raven tresses.
  3. transitive verb To consume greedily; devour.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (6)

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Examples (50)

  • Behind he heard the frightful shrieks and cries of the old man, following fast in pursuit When the old man found that he could not overtake the raven he cried to him, "Never mind; you may keep the light, but give me my shovel No; you made our village dark and you cannot have the shovel," called the raven, and flew faster, leaving the man far in the rear As the raven boy traveled home, he tore out a chunk from the light ball and threw it away, thus making a day. —  A Treasury of Eskimo Tales
  • The steed on which he was mounted was black as a raven, and the hair of the young man was long, black, and flowing as his horse's sable mane. —  Helen and Arthur or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel
  • His face was as black as the shell of the butter-nut or the feathers of the raven, and his eyes as green as grass. —  Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian
  • Very apropos of this crow or raven is the following: Heinrich Heine, in his "Germany" (vol. ii. p. 211, Heinemann's edition), compares the same to priests "whose pious croaking is so well known to our ears." —  Memoirs
  • One raven was the only living representative of the birds that had fled. —  The Giant of the North Pokings Round the Pole
 

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Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English hræfn.
  2. From Middle English ravin, raven, rapine, plunder, prey; see ravin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English raven, reven, revin; plural ravenes, refnes, remes; from Anglo-Saxon hræfn, hrefn, hræmn, hremn =D. raven, rave, raaf =Middle Low German raven, rave, Low German rave =Old High German rabo, also hraban, raban, hram, ram, Middle High German rube, also rappe, raben, ram, ramm (forms remaining in the proper names Rapp and Wolf-ram) =Icelandic hrafn =Old Swedish rafn, ramn = Danish ravn (not recorded in Gothic (Moesogothic)), a raven; perhaps, like the crow and owl, named from its cry, namely from the root seen in L. crepare, rattle: see crepitation, discrepant. The alleged etymological connection with L. corvus, Greek κόραξ, raven, Latin cornix, Greek κορώνη, crow, Polish kruk, a raven, Sanskrit kārava, a raven, is not made out.
  2. Also ravine; early modern English also ravin; from Middle English ravin, ravine, ravyne, raveyne, from Old French ravine, raveine, rabine, prey, plunder, rapine, also rapidity, impetuosity, prob. =Provencal rabina, from Latin rapina, plunder, pillage: see rapine, a doublet of raven.
  3. Also ravin from Old French raviner, seize by force, ravage, from Latin rapinare (in deriv.), plunder, from rapina, plunder, impetuosity: see raven, n.
 

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/ˈrævn/
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