wryneck

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“
Says the author quoted above: "When the sitting bird is interfered with, she defends her treasures with great courage, hissing like a wryneck, and vigorously striking at her aggressor with her sharp bill."

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Either of two small Old World woodpeckers (Jynx torquilla or J. ruficollis), having a sharply pointed bill and the habit of twisting the head and neck into contortions.
  2. noun See torticollis.
  3. noun A person with torticollis.

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Examples (33)

  • The adjective 'wryneck'd' refers, not to the instrument itself, which was straight, but to the player, whose head has to be slightly twisted round to get at the mouthpiece. —  Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries
  • The instrument was therefore held across [traverso] the face of the player, whose head would be turned sideways, and hence comes Shylock's description of it as the 'wryneck'd' fife In Much Ado_, Benedick draws a distinction between the Drum and Fife and the Tabor and Pipe. —  Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Doubtless that will come later on when it will be in the same category with the golden oriole, hoopoe, furze-wren, and other species that are regarded as always worth killing; that is to say, it will come--the scramble for the wryneck's carcass--if nothing is done in the meantime to restrain the enthusiasm of those who value a bird only when the spirit of life that gave it flight and grace and beauty has been crushed out of it--when it is no longer a bird. —  Birds in Town and Village
  • "Well," he said at length, "some fancies one thing and some another, but we most of us like a regatta During the talk that followed I asked him if he knew the wryneck, and if it ever nested in his orchard. —  Birds in Town and Village
  • A wryneck made fast to it by —  Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 02
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/ˈraɪnɛk/
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