Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An obsolete form of
shearwater .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The shearwater.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative spelling of
shearwater .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It is not, however, unknown to sportsmen, who land -- with leave -- upon the main island and shoot the handsome 'Deserta petrels,' the _cagarras_ (_Puffinus major_, or sheerwater), the rabbits, the goats that have now run wild, and possibly a seal.
To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I Richard Francis Burton 1855
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Very large pigeons were also met with in great plenty; likewise beautiful parrots and parroquets; a new species, apparently, of the coote, and also of the rail, and magpie; and a most beautiful small bird, brown, with a yellow breast and yellow on the wing; it seemed to be a species of humming bird: there was also a black bird, like a sheerwater, with a hooked bill, which burrows in the ground.
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789) Arthur Phillip 1776
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“The sooty petrel, better known to us under the name of sheerwater, frequents the tufted grassy parts of all the islands in astonishing numbers.
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Scott, Ernest, 1868-1939 1914
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"The sooty petrel, better known to us under the name of sheerwater, frequents the tufted grassy parts of all the islands in astonishing numbers.
The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Ernest Scott 1903
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