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  1. titmouse love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of numerous small insect-eating passerine birds of the family Paridae, found in woodland areas throughout the world and including especially members of the genus Parus, such as the chickadee. See Regional Note at tit1.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A tit; a tomtit; any bird of the family Paridæ, and especially of the subfamily Parinæ. (See the technical names, and cuts under chickadee and Parus.) Those of the genus Parus which occur in Great Britain, and hence have popular English names, are the greater titmouse, P. major; the coal-tit, P. ater (of which the British variety is sometimes called P. britannicus); the marsh-tit, P. palustris; the blue tit, P. cæruleus: and the crested tit, P. (Lophophanes) cristatus. The long-tailed titmouse is Acredula caudata or rosea. The bearded titmouse is Panurus (or Calamophilus) biarmicus (sometimes put in another family, Panuridæ). in the United States are a number of titmice, commonly called chickadees, with smooth heads and black caps and throats, as Parus atricapillus, etc. There are also several crested ones, forming the genus or subgenus Lophophanes, as the peto, or tufted titmouse, L. bicolor, the black-crested, L. atrocristatus, and others. Titmice which build long pensile nests are called in England bottle-tits, and by many provincial names, including poke-pudding. Those of the United States which have this habit are the bush-tits of the genus Psaltriparus. (See cut under bush-tit.) Others, of Europe and Africa, form the genus Ægithalus, as Æpendulinus, the penduline titmouse. The gold tit, or yellow-headed titmouse, of the southwestern United States, Auriparus flaviceps, also builds a very bulky and elaborate nest of twigs stuffed with feathers. Some of the British tits are called oxeye, and others hickwall.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Any small passerine bird of the family Paridae, which are found in the woods of the northern hemisphere and of Africa.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small insectivorous singing birds belonging to Parus and allied genera; -- called also tit, and tomtit.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. small insectivorous birds

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English titmose, compound of tit ("small bird") and Old English māse ("titmouse"), from Proto-Germanic *maisōn (compare Dutch mees, German Meise, Old Norse meisingr), from *maisaz (“tiny, puny”) (compare Norwegian meis ("skinny weakling")). The plural is formed in imitation of the otherwise unrelated mouse. (Wiktionary)
  2. Alteration (influenced by mous, mouse) of Middle English titmose : tit- (probably from Old Norse tittr, titmouse) + mose, titmouse (from Old English māse, titmouse). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “If I count that as a vote against titmouse, which is what my gut instructs me to do, then we have a final tally in order of funniness of:”

    Matthew Diffee: Finally, I Have an Opinion

  • “The titmouse is a fun little visitor to my yard as well.”

    Cement Reflections « Fairegarden

  • “Whatever would they do with the word about a bird called a titmouse?”

    Weekend roundup

  • “About two dozen or more of a little bird called the titmouse had all perched on one tree, where they were pecking, and fighting, and love-making, and noise-making, all at the same time.”

    Harry's Ladder to Learning

  • “One species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreating for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neighbourhoods; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren; but the blue titmouse or nun (_Parus caeruleus_), the cole-mouse”

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1

  • “-- as quick as a wink he was changed into a titmouse, which is the least of all the birds in that land.”

    The Wonder Clock

  • “Some of her colleagues in the House have not been too polite-she has been called a "titmouse" and told "Just quiet down, baby.”

    The Role of Opposition

  • “The "titmouse" walnut produces very delicate fruit, rich in oil, and with thin shells, so that the little creatures can pierce the husks and shells while the fruit is still on the bough.”

    Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure

  • “As one does not speak of the "egg-box" of the titmouse, meaning "the nest of the titmouse," why should I invoke the box in speaking of the Mantis?”

    Social Life in the Insect World

  • “There is no more faithful mother in the forest than the blue titmouse, which is a cousin to the chickadee," continued the policeman, "and this spring Tom Titmouse and his wife Nancy set up housekeeping in a little hollow in an elm-tree about half a mile north of this spot.”

    Policeman Bluejay

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. tit

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. donacobius
  2. chickadee
  3. bellbird
  4. vireo
  1. bee-eater
  2. sea-wave
  3. reenactment
  4. grebe
  1. blue jay
  2. shrike
  3. muntjac
  4. goshawk
  1. screamer
  2. sonority
  3. odd-numbered
  4. heaver
  1. sadomasochistic
  2. contrastive
  3. tsin
  4. front-to-back
  1. stratigraphic

reverse dictionary (67)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tomtit
  2. verdin
  3. chickadee
  4. tufted titmouse
  5. bush tit
  6. parus bicolor
  7. parus caeruleus
  8. auriparus flaviceps
  9. blue tit
  10. wren-tit
  11. bottle tit
  12. oxeye
  13. toupet
  1. pinchem
  2. joe-ben
  3. long tom
  4. heckimal
  5. nonett
  6. coalmouse
  7. coletit
  8. timal
  9. tom-noup
  10. yaup
  11. blackcap
  12. blue bonnet
  13. bluecap
  1. marsh-tit
  2. mufflin
  3. pickcheese
  4. prinpriddle
  5. reed-pheasant
  6. saw-sharpener
  7. saw-whetter
  8. sit-ye-down
  9. billy-biter
  10. bumbarrel
  11. can-bottle
  12. feather-poke
  13. fuffit
  1. hedge-jug
  2. jack-in-a-bottle
  3. Lolly
  4. wren tit
  5. tit
  6. tinnock
  7. tittimouse
  8. nun
  9. ovenbird
  10. penduline
  11. pokebag
  12. ragamuffin
  13. reedling
  1. saw sharpener
  2. saw whetter
  3. sharpsaw
  4. stonechat
  5. tidife
  6. titmal
  7. topet
  8. toupettit
  9. hickwall
  10. mag
  11. pie
  12. pinnock
  13. psaltria
  1. pudding-bag
  2. spick

tags (4)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. animal
  1. bird
  1. lolz
  1. titmice

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘titmouse’

  1. titmice

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Lists

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

Comments

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  • reesetee It hasn't worked for me yet.

    TM: Thanks. Clearly we took you too seriously. :-) Jun 11, 2009

  • chained_bear If you say titmouse three times, will one appear? You know, like Beetlejuice. Cuz that would be cool. Jun 11, 2009

  • tusseymountain Definitely tongue-in-cheek. Jun 11, 2009

  • rolig Sounds to me like an urban legend in the making. Jun 8, 2009

  • chained_bear There's also some question as to why the FCC would be involved in renaming a bird... Jun 8, 2009

  • reesetee Where did you hear that news, Tussey? I've only ever seen that on a blog, and it was tongue-in-cheek. Jun 8, 2009

  • dontcry Hmm... Do I really want to go there? Jun 8, 2009

  • chained_bear Federal Communications Commission. Jun 8, 2009

  • madmouth Federal Censorship Commitee.
    chestmouse, indeed! Jun 8, 2009

  • bilby What's the FCC? Jun 8, 2009

  • tusseymountain The FCC wants to change it to chestmouse. One species is known as tufted titmouse. I like that name but there's also thrummy titmouse which has its own appeal. Jun 8, 2009

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‘titmouse’ has been looked up 2820 times, loved by 1 person, added to 17 lists, commented on 11 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.