Definitions

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

  • noun A small black-and-white seabird (Alle alle) of the Arctic and northern Atlantic Oceans, having a short bill and a stout body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The sea-dove or little auk, Mergulus alle or Alle nigricans, a small urinatorial or diving bird of the family Alcidæ.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A guillemot (Uria grylle), of the arctic regions. Also applied to the little auk or sea dove. See under dove.

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

  • noun A small back and white seabird, of the genus Alle, of the north Atlantic; the little auk.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small short-billed auk abundant in Arctic regions

Etymologies

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

[ Diminutive of dove.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "This bird typically lays one egg in a cavity on a steep rocky slope close to the sea. They raise one chick that leaves the nest about 27 days after hatching. It is estimated that 60 million Dovekies breed in the Thule District. A significant portion of those occur in the area from Cape Atholl south to Parker Snow Bay."

    - 'Alle alle', borealforests.org.

    November 26, 2008