Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various chiefly tropical Old World birds of the family Meropidae that have brightly colored plumage and feed on bees and wasps.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which eats bees, as a bird; an apiaster.

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

  • noun A bird of the genus Merops, that feeds especially on bees. The European species (Merops apiaster) is remarkable for its brilliant colors.
  • noun An African bird of the genus Rhinopomastes.

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

  • noun Any of various brightly-coloured, insectivorous, near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae, especially the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster.

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

  • noun colorful chiefly tropical Old World bird having a strong graceful flight; feeds on especially bees

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the diet of these birds, which consists of flying insects, especially bees and wasps.

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