Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A tree-cuckoo of the genus Coccygus, either C. americanus or C. ery-throphthalmus: so named from its cries, often heard in lowering weather, and supposed to predict rain.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Is that rain-crow feller still workin 'over in town?"
Trail's End George W. Ogden
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The rain-crow or cuckoo (both species) is supposed by all hunters to foretell rain, when its "Kow, kow, kow" is long and hard.
Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Girl Scouts of the United States of America 1918
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
An Autobiography Roosevelt, Theodore 1913
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
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Little he knew of the locust that suddenly whirred his mills of shrillness in the maple-tree, and sounded so hot, hot, hot; or those others that railed at the country quiet from the dim shade around the brick house; or even the rain-crow that sat on the fence and swore to them in the face of a sunny sky that they should see rain ere the day were done.
The Gentleman from Indiana Booth Tarkington 1907
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A rain-crow was calling softly from a willow tree, and the ripples murmured sorrowfully on the shore.
Shawn of Skarrow James Tandy Ellis 1905
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A cuckoo droops from a tall wild cherry tree on one side of the road to a tangle of wild grape on the other; he peers out and gives his rain-crow call.
Some Summer Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905
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The miserable rain-crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with him.
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography Theodore Roosevelt 1888
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The woods were still; the sunshine was faint and flickering; the low, guttural notes of a rain-crow broke suddenly on the silence.
The Young Mountaineers Short Stories Mary Noailles Murfree 1886
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