Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various swallows, such as the house martin or the purple martin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A shortened form of freemartin.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of marten.
  • noun Any swallow of the family Hirundinidæ; a martinet; a martlet.
  • noun An ape.
  • noun See the quotation.
  • noun A tool for grinding or polishing stone.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of several species of swallows, usually having the tail less deeply forked than the tail of the common swallows.
  • noun The fairy martin. See under Fairy.
  • noun The kingbird.
  • noun the bank swallow.
  • noun (Stone Working) A perforated stone-faced runner for grinding.

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

  • noun Any of various passerine birds of the family Hirundinidae, which also includes swallows, that catch insects whilst flying.

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

  • noun United States actor and comedian (born in 1945)
  • noun French bishop who is a patron saint of France (died in 397)
  • noun any of various swallows with squarish or slightly forked tail and long pointed wings; migrate around Martinmas
  • noun United States actress (1913-1990)
  • noun United States singer (1917-1995)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English martoune, probably from the name Martin.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Abraham, Martin and John" sung by Dion, and the old folk song "Martin's Rattler."

    February 9, 2008