Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A North American bird (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) that ranges from southern Canada to Mexico and has black, white, and rust-colored plumage in the male. Also called chewink, ground robin.
- n. Any of several finches of the genera Pipilo or Chlorura, found in the western United States.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The chewink, ground-robin, or marsh-robin of the United States, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, or any other species of the genus Pipilo: more fully called towhee bunting Some of the western pipilos to which the name extends have, however, a cry more like the mewing of the catbird. See cut under
Pipilo , and comparetuwhit and tuwhoo.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) The chewink.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of numerous long-tailed American finches
Etymologies
- Imitative of the song of some of these birds. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“So let us call the towhee a finch, and say no more about it.”
“Mystery bird: California towhee, Melozone crissalis”
The Guardian: Legislation forces archaeologists to rebury finds
“Flocks of phoebe and towhee and dove pushing the cold ahead of them.”
“The most common birds seen in the dry summer season are wrentit, common bushtit, and rufous-sided towhee.”
California Coastal Range Open Woodland-Shrub-Coniferous Forest - Meadow Province (Bailey)
“Of the 20-odd bird species present in mature forest, the most common are the pine warbler, cardinal, summer tanager, Carolina wren, ruby-throated hummingbird, blue jay, hooded warbler, eastern towhee, and tufted titmouse.”
“I wish I had seen an eastern towhee or a cedar waxwing.”
“The juvenile rufous sided towhee and song,strike that, white throated, thanks Lisa, sparrow pick up the crumbs.”
“Music and cats towhee smugsmug kristine uw cowtipper rishabht hartson pbase rockndog rickolis”
“Seen just today: junco, northern flicker, rufous sided towhee sp?”
“The trees were alive with birdsong, and a towhee hopped and scratched in a patch of sun, oblivious of the passing men and horses.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘towhee’.
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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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Looks like a digraph, but isn't
mishap, mishear, boathouse, courthouse, chophouse, ungainly, anthill, pothole, haphazard, upholstery, hothead, upheaval and 16 more...
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More Bird Wirds: North America
Birds endemic to the United States and/or North America.
toucan, peacock, weaver, bullfinch, redpoll, siskin, crossbill, finch, rosy-finch, oriole, cowbird, blackbird and 213 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 317 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for towhee.
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