Definitions

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

  • noun The migratory drive in animals, especially birds.

Etymologies

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

[German : Zug, a pulling, move, migration; see zugzwang + Unruhe, restlessness (from Middle High German unruowe, from Old High German unruowa : un-, not; see ne in Indo-European roots + ruowa, rest).]

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Examples

Comments

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  • The urge to migrate, especially as exhibited by captive birds.

    February 22, 2007

  • This is one of those words that you look at and think, "Well that's from German".

    February 22, 2007

  • Four years on, my personal declaration of, and against, lexical ignorance runs from "abscissa" (Cormac McCarthy) to "zugunruhe" (William Fiennes, who admittedly provided a helpful contextual explanation of this, the migratory restlessness of birds). James Meek

    January 3, 2008

  • and all these years I've been thinking it was a railwaymen's strike in Germany!

    January 9, 2008

  • Maybe that's why the birds felt an urge to migrate. ;->

    January 9, 2008