Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several shorebirds of the genus Limnodromus that breed in far northern latitudes and have brownish plumage and a long straight bill.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The red-breasted or gray-backed snipe, Macrorhamphus griseus: a popular and now a book name of this species, which was formerly locally (Long Island and vicinity) called German or Dutch snipe, to distinguish it from the so-called English snipe, Gallinago wilsoni.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) The red-breasted or gray snipe (Macrorhamphus griseus); -- called also brownback, and grayback.

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

  • noun Any of three long-legged and long-billed migratory wading birds in the genus Limnodromus of the family Scolopacidae.

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

  • noun shorebird of the sandpiper family that resembles a snipe

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps from Mohawk tawístawis, snipe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an Iroquoian language; compare Oneida tawístawe ("snipe").

Support

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Examples

  • This area is important for waders, including the Asian dowitcher Limnodromus semipalmatus (R), a rare winter migrant.

    Sundarbans National Park, India 2008

  • While 20 species occur regularly along the sand flats and mud flats of the estuary, four species, the willet, dowitcher, western sandpiper and marbled godwit, account for a large part of the bird population throughout the year.

    Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, California 2008

  • Other shorebirds that eat leaf-beetles are the Wilson phalarope and dowitcher.

    Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation William Temple Hornaday 1895

  • Long-billed dowitcher and northern hairy woodpecker.

    Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation William Temple Hornaday 1895

  • Adults and larvae of these flies have been found in the stomachs of the dowitcher, the pectoral sandpiper, the hudsonian godwit, and the killdeer.

    Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation William Temple Hornaday 1895

  • W.od-duck, bob white, woodcock, golden plover, Hudsonian curlew, knot and dowitcher [are threatened with extinction.] -- (C.W. Nash, Toronto.)

    Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation William Temple Hornaday 1895

  • He carves them - the dowitcher, the American oystercatcher, the black-bellied plover.

    Record Article Feed 2010

  • More than half the 77 species of migratory birds that use the East Asian-Australasian flyway -- including the Eurasian curlew which has 'near-threatened' status, the Asiatic dowitcher and black-tailed godwit -- arrive in September and leave by April.

    My Sinchew - 2010

  • We did well with ducks, owls and warblers but missed a few anticipated shorebirds such as the white-rumped sandpiper, stilt sandpiper and short-billed dowitcher.

    Berks county news 2010

  • The name is dowitcher. article in Monday's Calendar section about the Coachella Music and Arts Festival said Paul McCartney played a portion of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady."

    unknown title 2009

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