Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various large shorebirds of the genus Limosa, having a long, slender, slightly upturned bill.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bird of the genus Limosa; a barge; a goathead.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of several species of long-billed, wading birds of the genus Limosa, and family Tringidæ. The European black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), the American marbled godwit (Limosa fedoa), the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa hæmastica), and others, are valued as game birds. Called also godwin.

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

  • noun Any of four species of long-billed, migratory wading birds in the genus Limosa, of the family Scolopacidae.

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

  • noun large wading bird that resembles a curlew; has a long slightly upturned bill

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

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Examples

  • n Members of the Francis M. Weston Audubon Society have reported spotting a marbled godwit, which is rare in this region, and a roseate tern, which hasn't been spotted near Pensacola since 1958.

    PNJ - News 2008

  • He lost his wife to cancer, is a deep thinker – especially when out looking for a pectoral sandpiper or a black-tailed godwit – badly dressed, anti-consumerist and becomes convinced that, for all the police efforts, society is falling apart and "anarchy rules".

    Pompey meets Le Havre in French TV crime hit 2012

  • The intertidal mudflats and coastal lagoons are important staging sites for migratory shorebirds, including red knot Calidris canutus, white-rumped sandpiper C. fuscicollis and Hudsonian godwit Limosa haemastica.

    Península Valdés, Argentina 2008

  • In 2007, an even more astonishing record was established by a bar-tailed godwit.

    Birdology Sy Montgomery 2010

  • And when there's a rarity like a black-tailed godwit or a fork-tailed flycatcher, the traffic jams on the refuge's one road are legendary.

    undiscovered 2009

  • There are also ringed plover Charadrius hiaticula, grey plover Pluvialis squatarola, knot Calidris canutus, redshankTringa totanus and bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica among many other species.

    Banc d'Arguin National Park, Mauritania 2009

  • This coincides with the recent northern expansion of other wet-grassland waders, such as the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) in the Bolshemelzkaya tundra [14], the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), and the northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) in northern Russia concomitant with a northward expansion of agriculture including sown meadows [15].

    Recent and projected changes in arctic species distributions and potential ranges 2009

  • And when there's a rarity like a black-tailed godwit or a fork-tailed flycatcher, the traffic jams on the refuge's one road are legendary.

    Archive 2009-07-01 2009

  • The most abundant are dunlin (Calidris alpina), bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and redshank (Tringa totanus) all with populations of over 100,000 birds.

    Atlantic coastal desert 2008

  • Okarito Lagoon is the largest estuarine lagoon on the South Island's west coast and is an important habitat for wading birds, including South Island pied oystercatcher Haematopus sp., pied stilt and the migratory bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica and knot Calidris sp.

    Te Wahipounamu (South-West New Zealand World Heritage Area), New Zealand 2008

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