Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An Old World shrike (Lanius senator) having black and white plumage with a reddish crown.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The red-backed shrike or butcher-bird of Africa and Europe, Laniusrufus. Also called L. auriculatus and by other names. It is occasionally seen in Great Britain in sum mer. The name is misleading, as the bird is not a chat in any proper sense.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any one of several species of Asiatic singing birds belonging to the genera Ianthia and Larvivora. They are closely allied to the European robin. The males are usually bright blue above, and more or less red or rufous beneath.
- n. A European shrike (Enneoctonus rufus). In the male the head and nape are rufous red; the back, wings, and tail are black, varied with white.
Examples
“I saw many other birds in my month on Fair Isle, far rarer ones: I found a woodchat shrike, a streaky youngster with a grownup hooked bill, that should have been on the other side of Europe; I became adept at listening for the soft calls of common rosefinches, the blandest of birds with the beadiest of eyes; I knew where a buff-breasted sandpiper blown from North America roosted.”
“The great grey shrike, the red-backed shrike, and the woodchat shrike, are the three species of the family occurring in Great Britain; the red-backed shrike is the only tolerably common one, arriving in this country late in April, and quitting it in September.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘woodchat’.
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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 Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Rognons of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for terms and phrases that don't fit into any of my other lists.
priorship, exigeant, refectory, reestablish, capper, reesed, quar, reprune, orificial, reaming-iron, terminist, terminism and 3097 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for woodchat.
chained_bear usage on wariangle Mar 16, 2008