Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The barnacle or barnacle-goose. See
barnacle , 1.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A bernicle goose.
- noun (Zoöl.) a goose (
Branta leucopsis ), of Arctic Europe and America. It was formerly believed that it hatched from the cirripeds of the sea (Lepas ), which were, therefore, called barnacles, goose barnacles, or Anatifers. The name is also applied to other related species. SeeAnatifa andCirripedia .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
barnacle goose . - noun historical A form of
torture in which thelegs were crushed between pieces ofwood .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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For several centuries there was prevalent over the whole of civilised Europe a most extraordinary superstition concerning the small Arctic bird resembling, but not so large as, the common wild goose, known as the barnacle or bernicle goose.
Bygone Beliefs 1969
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The brant and bernicle beat their way North against the roaring winds, and man with a different instinct pressed on towards the West.
The Girl from Keller's Harold Bindloss 1905
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The air at this season is full of great birds -- eagles, buzzards, hawks, and falcons -- soaring in circles to look out for prey among the flocks of wild swans, white geese, bernicle geese and brent geese, duck and teal, which cover the backwaters and the marshes and shallow lagoons.
Pioneers in Canada Harry Hamilton Johnston 1892
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Bernicle geese and bernicle shells, confused in name, thus became confused in nature; and, once started, the ordinary process of growth was sufficient to further intensify, and render more realistic, the story of the bernicle tree and its wonderful progeny.
Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky Various 1880
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And carefully taking one of the eggs of the bernicle goose, he broke the shell at its end, and adroitly swallowed the inside without any further formalities.
Godfrey Morgan A Californian Mystery Jules Verne 1866
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Several flocks of birds were visible on the shore, bitterns, curlews, bernicle geese, and teal, which hovered and chirped and filled the air with their flutterings and cries, doubtless protesting against the invasion of their domain.
Godfrey Morgan A Californian Mystery Jules Verne 1866
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A few dozen eggs of the bernicle geese were also found among the higher rocks which shut in the bay on the north.
Godfrey Morgan A Californian Mystery Jules Verne 1866
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These geese are very small, and not above half the size of the Canada geese; and yet Mr. Waterton found a large old Canada goose on his noble sheet of water at Walton Hall pair with a bernicle gander.
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845
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The bernicle, or brent goose, is interesting from the curious superstition which formerly prevailed respecting it, as it was supposed to have sprung from the shell called the barnacle or lepas, which adheres to the bottoms of ships, and which has a fringe of cirri projecting from between its valves bearing some faint resemblance to the feathers of a bird.
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845
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