Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A songbird (Dumetella carolinensis) of North and Central America having predominantly slate plumage and a cry like the mew of a cat.
- noun Any of various other species of birds having a similar cry, especially one of several birds of Australia and New Guinea related to the bowerbirds.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A wellknown oscine passerine bird of North America, Mimus caro-linensis, one of the mocking-thrushes, related to the mocking-bird.
- noun An Australian name of members of the genus Ælurœdus: so called on account of the resemblance of their notes to the calls of a cat.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) An American bird (
Galeoscoptes Carolinensis ), allied to the mocking bird, and like it capable of imitating the notes of other birds, but less perfectly. Its note resembles at times the mewing of a cat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Either of two species of
American mockingbird relatives, the grey catbird and the black catbird. - noun Either of four species of
Australasian bowerbirds of the genera Ailuroedus and Scenopooetes. - noun A
babbler -like bird from eastern Africa, Parophasma galinieri.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of various birds of the Australian region whose males build ornamented structures resembling bowers in order to attract females
- noun North American songbird whose call resembles a cat's mewing
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"This is a triumph of his, not a desperate, tragic failure," Anita Thompson said by phone, recounting that she was sitting in her husband's chair he called his catbird seat in the Rockies.
Don't romanticize Thompson's suicide. Ann Althouse 2005
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Yesterday he called a catbird to within a few feet of him, by reproducing the notes as uttered and inflected by the female. "
Michael O'Halloran Gene Stratton-Porter 1893
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The thrasher, or red thrush, sneaks and skulks like a culprit, hiding in the densest alders; the catbird is a coquette and a flirt, as well as a sort of female Paul Pry; and the chewink shows his inhospitality by espying your movements like a detective.
Bird Stories from Burroughs Sketches of Bird Life Taken from the Works of John Burroughs John Burroughs 1879
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The game was tight in the first half, but foul trouble put the Wildcats in the catbird seat.
IA Independents 2009
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In an analysis, Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker explains why he thinks Rubio is in "the catbird seat" to win:
Dueling Partisan Polls Confirm A Toss-Up In Illinois Senate Race The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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Her Majesty, dressed in canary yellow, watched it all from her catbird seat in the mezzanine.
William and Kate Christopher Andersen 2011
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In an analysis, Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker explains why he thinks Rubio is in "the catbird seat" to win:
Dueling Partisan Polls Confirm A Toss-Up In Illinois Senate Race The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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Coming from man who pretended nothing was wrong when the economy was collapsing and who consistently made a fool of himself and of us Americans whenever he went overseas to this "dangerous world"? catbird
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Things were fine, except for a catbird trapped inside the netting that covers the blueberry bushes.
"My weakness laid bare, as people stop and stare." readingthedark 2009
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I want to convince you that teachers could be -- should be -- in the catbird seat.
John Merrow: Lessons for Future Teachers John Merrow 2011
chained_bear commented on the word catbird
Ooh! Image search on this one is pretty nice as well. (See also grey catbird.)
June 17, 2009