robin

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A North American songbird (Turdus migratorius) having a rust-red breast and gray and black upper plumage. Also called robin redbreast.
2. n. A small Old World bird (Erithacus rubecula) having an orange breast and a brown back. Also called robin redbreast.
3. n. Any of various birds resembling a robin.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A small sylviine bird of Europe, Erythacus rubecula, more fully called robin-redbreast, and also redbreast, robinet, and ruddock. It is more like a warbler than like a thrush, only about 5 1/2 inches long and 9 in extent of wings; the upper parts are olive-green; the forehead, sides of the head, front of the neck, and fore part of the breast are yellowish-red (whence the name redbreast). It is an abundant and familiar British bird, widely distributed in other parts of the Palearctic region. The song is rich, mellow, and finely modulated. The nest is placed on the ground, in herbage or moss, generally under a hedge or bush. The eggs are usually five or six in number, pinkish-white freckled with purplish-red. This robin is a common figure in English nursery tales and folk-lore.
2. n. The red-breasted or migratory thrush of North America, Turdus migratorius or Merula migratoria, one of the most abundant and familiar of North American birds: so called from the reddish-brown color of the under parts, which, however, is very different, both in hue and in extent, from that of the European redbreast. This robin is 10 inches long and 16 in extent of wings. The upper parts are slate-color with an olive shade; most of the under parts are chestnut-red; the vent-feathers are white, with dusky markings; the head is black, with white marks about the eyes and white streaks on the throat; and the tail is blackish, usually marked with white at the ends of the outer feathers. The bill is mostly yellow. The robin inhabits the whole of North America; it is migratory, feeds on insects, worms, berries, and other fruits, and breeds at large throughout its range, building a large strong nest of hay and mud on a bough, and laying from four to six uniform greenish-blue eggs, 1⅕ inches long by 4/5 inch broad. Also, familiarly, robin-redbreast.
3. n. With a qualifying term, one of numerous warbler-like or thrush-like birds, more or less nearly related to or resembling either of the foregoing: as, the blue-throated robin. (See Cyanecula, and cut under bluethroat.) Some of these terms are book-names, others are casual transfers of the word robin by English residents in various parts of the world, especially India and Australia. In the latter region are various flycatchers (Muscicapidæ) of the genus Petrœca and its subdivisions, some of which are called robins, as the scarlet-breasted. P. multicolor, peculiar to Norfolk Island. Some of the Asiatic chats of the genus Pratincola are known as Indian robins; these are related to the British whinchat and stonechat, and do not particularly resemble the true robin of England. Others, recently separated generically under the name Erythromyias, inhabit Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and other islands of the same zoögeographical region, and resemble the true robin, as E. dumetoria and E. muelleri. The red-breasted flycatcher, Muscicapa (Erythrosterna) parva, which ranges from central Europe into India, bears a striking resemblance to the true robin. Among other Indian robins, loosely so called, may be noted one sometimes specified as the water-robin. This is a flycatcher, Xanthopygia fuliginosa, originally described by Vigors in 1831 as Phœnicura fuliginosa, and commonly catalogued as Ruticilla fuliginosa (after G. R. Gray); but it does not belong to the same family as the robin, nor to the same genus as the redstart. It inhabits the Himalayan region, and ranges widely in China and India. It has been placed in 5 different genera, two of which, Rhyacornis of Blanford and Nymphæus of A. O. Hume, were specially framed for its reception.
4. n. The robin-snipe or red-breasted sandpiper, Tringa canutus: a clipped name among gunners. Also beach-robin. See knot, 1.
5. n. The sea-robin or red-breasted merganser, Mergus serrator.
6. n. In ichthyology, a sea-robin or flying-robin; one of several kinds of Triglidæ.
7. n. A local name of the pinfish.
8. n. A name variously applied (commonly as part of a compound) to the herb-robert, to species of Lychnis, and to some other plants. Red-robin denotes, besides the wheat-rust, the herb-robert, the Lychnis diurna, etc. See ragged-robin and wake-robin. [Prov. Eng.]
9. n. A trimming on the front of a dress.
10. n. Same as robbin.
11. n. A toxin obtained from the Robinia Pseudacacia, a locust-tree of North America.

Wiktionary

1. n. A European robin; Erithacus rubecula.
2. n. An American robin; Turdus migratorius.
3. n. Various passerine birds (about 100 species) of the families Muscicapidae, Turdidae and Petroicidae (formerly Eopsaltridae), typically with a red breast.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A small European singing bird (Erythacus rubecula), having a reddish breast; -- called also robin redbreast, robinet, and ruddock.
2. n. An American singing bird (Merula migratoria), having the breast chestnut, or dull red. The upper parts are olive-gray, the head and tail blackish. Called also robin redbreast, and migratory thrush.
3. n. Any one of several species of Australian warblers of the genera Petroica, Melanadrays, and allied genera.
4. n. Any one of several Asiatic birds. See Indian robin, below.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. large American thrush having a rust-red breast and abdomen
2. n. small Old World songbird with a reddish breast