Definitions

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to the genus Meleagris.

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

  • adjective zoology Of or pertaining to the genus Meleagris, including turkeys.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin meleagris ("turkey") +‎ -ine

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Examples

  • OW 1868-1885 OW larine gull OW tringine sandpiper OW meleagrine turkey W trochilidine humming - milvine kite 1727-1842 bird 1885 OW OW trochiline humming - nestorine kea, kaka W bird W phasianine pheasant turdine thrush 1890 1868

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IV No 1 1977

Comments

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  • Usage example:

    Recent headline - "Turkey swears in new parliament"

    The untold story behind the headline - alarming rise in meleagrine Tourette's syndrome.

    October 8, 2007

  • Meleager was burnt to death by his mother after he killed her brothers in a dispute over a beautiful woman and a dead boar that they had all pursued in an epic hunt. Meleager's sisters wept copiously over his tomb until Diana (Artemis), the goddess of the hunt who had unleashed the boar in the first place, took pity and turned them into guinea hens who flew away. The sisters became known as the Meleagrides.

    January 27, 2009