Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See pipit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small lark-like bird; hence, specifically, in ornithology, a titling; a pipit; any bird of the genus Anthus or subfamily Anthinæ (see these words, and pipit). There are many species, of most parts of the world. The common titlark of the United States is A. ludovicianus, which abounds in eastern parts of the country and in Canada. Several are common English birds, as the meadow-pipit or moss-creeper, A. pratensis; the tree-pipit or field-titlark, A. arboreus; and the sea-titlark or rock-pipit, A. obscurus. See
rock-pipit , cut underAnthus , and phrases under lark.
Wiktionary
- n. Anthus pratensis, the meadow pipit, a songbird
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous small spring birds belonging to Anthus, Corydalla, and allied genera, which resemble the true larks in color and in having a very long hind claw; especially, the European meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis).
WordNet 3.0
- n. a songbird that lives mainly on the ground in open country; has streaky brown plumage
Etymologies
- tit + lark (Wiktionary)
- tit-, as in tit(mouse) + lark1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He turned over on his side and peered into the shadow of the Main-Stone; but in vain, for the titlark is a hesitating, unhappy little soul that never quite dares to make up its mind.”
“The melody of singing birds ranks as follows: The nightingale first, then the linnet, titlark, sky lark and wood lark.”
Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889
“Another island of large size in the latitude of southern Scotland, but twice as far to the west, would be almost wholly covered with everlasting snow, and would have each bay terminated by ice-cliffs, whence great masses would be yearly detached: this island would boast only of a little moss, grass, and burnet, and a titlark would be its only land inhabitant.”
“Young John, now he had learnt that wrens can talk, had no difficulty in recognising this other voice: it was the half-hearted note of the titlark.”
“I doubt," said the titlark, "it will be much profit to him, wonderful though it is.”
“Or why it is permissible to slay a minute bird such as a snipe, while a titlark is on no account to be touched.”
“Blackbirds catch them on the ground, as do the killdeer, titlark, meadow lark, and others; while orioles hunt for them on the bolls.”
“One of them had a titlark, or meadow pipit, which he had just caught, in his hand, and there was a hot argument as to which of the two was the lawful owner of the poor little captive.”
“That pretty little tale of a titlark was but the first of a long succession of memories of his early years, with half a century of shepherding life on the downs, which came out during our talks on many autumn and winter evenings as we sat by his kitchen fire.”
“Then the young birdcatcher returned to the spot, and creeping quietly up to within five or six feet of the nest threw his hat so that it fell over the sitting titlark; but after having thus secured it he refused to give it up.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘titlark’.
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birds
birds with singular names from
at least 9 English dictionariesaasvogel, aberdevine, accentor, accipiter, aepyornis, agami, albatross, alcatras, alcid, alcidine, amadavat, amokura and 1056 more...
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The Porn Birds
It's the winter of 2039. Global warming and rapacious development is taking a serious toll on habitat for birds all around the world. In desperation, they turn to new careers in the feather-flick...
goatsucker, french magpie, timberdoodle, butterbutt, popinjay, logcock, old cranky, long john, sprog, wedgie, bonxie, baldpate and 95 more...
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1800 Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick and Hi...
Bizarre stuff found there. Note that archaic terms are occasionally not spelled the way we spell them today; in these cases I've tried to link to the modernized spelling (where known) on the word p...
musk-bull, urus, zebu, cameleopard, ratel, suricate, wombach, saragoy, murine, ternate, coach dog, comforter and 91 more...
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Bird Wirds: Sundry Nicknames
A list of birders' "shorthand" names, traditional nicknames, non-English names, and obsolete names for feathered creatures worldwide.
Interesting blog entry here on naming U.S. birds.welsh ambassador, goatsucker, french magpie, timberdoodle, butterbutt, popinjay, logcock, old cranky, long john, sprog, butterbum, wedgie and 697 more...
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I, Claudius
Words taken from I, Claudius by Robert Graves.
evocation, aureus, sestertii, denarii, assegai, pilum, framea, sibyl, propitiatory, duenna, tyrannicide, maggoty and 136 more...
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Rude birds
Strictly ornithological. Real birds only
red-footed booby, great shag, great tit, bearded tit, common shag, blue-eyed shag, blue tit, windfucker, titlark, canada hooker, titmouse
Tweets
Looking for tweets for titlark.
reesetee Heehee. Mar 9, 2009
mollusque No, reesetee, it's a listit! Mar 8, 2009
reesetee It's a pipit. (Maybe it changed its name out of embarrassment.) Aug 26, 2008
chained_bear It's a bird.
(P.S. I almost added this to VanishedOne's Pseudo-seduction list.) Aug 25, 2008