Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The Pacific golden plover, Charadrius dominicus fulvus, which makes a wonderful trip from Alaska to the Sandwich Islands.

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

  • noun Hawaiian name for a migrating plover.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The kolea is a feeder along the shore, his range limited to a narrower strip as the tide rises.

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

  • At the lower end of the crater was our camping spot, in a small grove of olapa and kolea trees, tucked away in a corner of the crater at the base of walls that rose perpendicularly fifteen hundred feet.

    Chapter 8 1913

  • There were forests of koa and kolea trees, and candlenut trees; and then there were the trees called ohia-ai, which bore red mountain apples, mellow and juicy and most excellent to eat.

    Chapter 8 1913

  • At the lower end of the crater was our camping spot, in a small grove of olapa and kolea trees, tucked away in a corner of the crater at the base of walls that rose perpendicularly fifteen hundred feet.

    Chapter 8 1911

  • There were forests of koa and kolea trees, and candlenut trees; and then there were the trees called ohia-ai, which bore red mountain apples, mellow and juicy and most excellent to eat.

    Chapter 8 1911

  • So the kolea company sailed along in the air till they brushed against the sacred locks of Niheu, and for very shame he let go his mother and struck at the koleas with his rod and hit their tail feathers and knocked them all out, so that they remain tailless to this day.

    Hawaiian Folk Tales A Collection of Native Legends 1887

  • And he sent the _kolea_ (plover) squad to desecrate the sacred locks of Niheu; for the locks of Niheu were _kapu_, and if they should be touched, he would relinquish Hina for very shame.

    Hawaiian Folk Tales A Collection of Native Legends 1887

  • A PLOVER at the full of the sea: song for the _hula kolea_ 220

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

  • The hula _manó_, shark-dance, as its name signifies, was a performance that takes class with the hula kolea, already mentioned, as one of the animal dances.

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

  • The plover -- kolea -- is a wayfarer in Hawaii; its nest-home is in distant lands, Kahiki.

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

Comments

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  • Charming definition, to which should be appended "while sipping mojitos from a cruise ship deckchair".

    February 10, 2013

  • Ha!

    February 10, 2013