Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An old name of some small bird which feeds on seeds, as a thistle-bird, linnet, siskin, or bunting.
- n. Hence A genus of thistle-birds named by Koch in 1816, containing the linnet, the siskin or aberdevine, the goldfinch, the redpoll, and others, both of Europe and of America. In present usage, the siskin is Spinus spinus, the pine-finch is S. pinus, the goldfinch of Europe is S. carduelis, that of America is S. tristis, etc. The name wavers in application, and is more or less inexactly synonymous with several others, as Acanthis, Carduelis, Chrysomitris, Astragalinus, Ægiothus, Linaria, Linota, etc. See cuts under
siskin and goldfinch.
WordNet 3.0
- n. in some classifications considered a subgenus of Carduelis: siskins and New World goldfinches
Examples
“One of the elephant's vertebrae, left, and the spurs off the back of the vertebrae, called the spinus process, that were so large I thought they were bones of a sheep or a goat.”
“Meanwhile, in the test trench within the large depression, numerous elephant bones were appearing: a portion of tusk, foot bones, vertebral disks the size of hockey pucks, and strange bones that I thought to be the legs of sheep or goats, until I was shown they were the vertebral spinus processes, the pointy bits on the back of the vertebrae that you can feel going down your back.”
“There is more about Pallas in book-titles (to which additions can easily be made), and about "Jonson's Cri-spinus or Cri-spinas," but perhaps we have now the gist of Mr. Greenwood's remarks on the”
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