Definitions

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

  • noun A small warbler (Phylloscopus collybita) of Eurasia and Africa, having yellowish-green plumage.

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

  • noun A small, common warbler, Phylloscopus collybita, with yellowish-green plumage that breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia.
  • noun Any of several other species of the same genus.
  • noun UK, onomatopoeic, uncountable the song of the chiffchaff.

Etymologies

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

[Imitative of its song.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Echoic of its repetitive "chiff-chaff" song of the European species Phylloscopus collybita.

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Examples

  • A short car tour and a lengthy walk turn up not even a fleeting glimpse of a wheatear's white rump, and so we set off for Airidh nam Ban in the hope of at least hearing a chiffchaff among the trees there even if we don't see one.

    Country diary: South Uist 2011

  • But there is neither sight nor sound of a chiffchaff.

    Country diary: South Uist 2011

  • Yellow buttercups and blue speedwells in the grass, leaves eager with fresh rain in trees above; chiffchaff and blackcap singing; she was not dead yet.

    Country diary: Wenlock Edge 2011

  • Blackthorn blossom foams along the sides of shorn hedgerows but grows unchecked with willow catkins and flowering gorse bushes in neglected thickets which shelter the returned chiffchaff and blackcap.

    Country diary: St Dominic, Tamar Valley 2011

  • Others contributing to the soundtrack include the goldcrest, blackbird, thrush, chiffchaff, wren, mallard, coot and even the garden bully, the wood pigeon.

    Beat winter blues with birdsong, National Trust urges 2010

  • By July, the dawn chorus is virtually silent compared with the cacophony of spring but a chiffchaff still sounded in the distance.

    How to get back to nature when camping 2010

  • Birds (12) buzzard; hobby; wood pigeon; crow; chiffchaff; blackbird; chaffinch; grey heron; gull (unspecified); green woodpecker; magpie; owl (unspecified);

    How to get back to nature when camping 2010

  • • You'll mainly hear song thrush and chiffchaff from around 2:14 onwards.

    Listen to the National Trust audio guide to Britain's bird species 2010

  • They greeted me with warmth, and soon Dulcis began to chatter like a chiffchaff about a new suitor, and I was wholeheartedly grateful that she was more interested in herself than me.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • They greeted me with warmth, and soon Dulcis began to chatter like a chiffchaff about a new suitor, and I was wholeheartedly grateful that she was more interested in herself than me.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

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