Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various birds of prey of the family Falconidae and especially of the genus Falco, having a short, curved beak and long, pointed, powerful wings adapted for swift flight.
  • noun Any of several birds of these or related species, such as hawks, trained to hunt small game.
  • noun A female bird of this type used in falconry.
  • noun A small cannon in use from the 15th to the 17th century.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A diurnal bird of prey, not a vulture; especially, a hawk used in falconry.
  • noun In ornithology:
  • noun One of the Falconidæ.
  • noun One of the Falconidæ.
  • noun Specifically, a bird of the genus Falco.
  • noun In falconry, a female falcon, as distinguished from the male, which is about a third smaller, and is known as a tercel, tiercel, or tiercelet. See haggard.
  • noun A kind of cannon in use in the sixteenth century.
  • noun Same as femoral falcon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of a family (Falconidæ) of raptorial birds, characterized by a short, hooked beak, strong claws, and powerful flight.
  • noun Any species of the genus Falco, distinguished by having a toothlike lobe on the upper mandible; especially, one of this genus trained to the pursuit of other birds, or game.
  • noun (Gun.) An ancient form of cannon.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See under Chanting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any bird of the genus Falco, all of which are birds of prey.
  • verb To hunt with a falcon or falcons.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb hunt with falcons
  • noun diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French faucon, falcun, from Late Latin falcō, falcōn-; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English falcon, faulcon, from Anglo-Norman falcon, falcun, from Late Latin falcō ("falcon"), of Germanic origin, probably via Old Frankish *falko (“falcon, hawk”), from Proto-Germanic *falkô (“falcon”), from from Proto-Indo-European *pol̑- (“pale”), from *pel- (“fallow”).

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Examples

Comments

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  • "an ancient name given to a 3 pounder a size/type of cannon." (citation in Historical Military Terms list description)

    See also falconet.

    October 9, 2008

  • See hawk.

    March 3, 2011