Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various swimming and diving birds of the family Podicipedidae, having a pointed bill and lobed, fleshy membranes along each toe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bird of the family Podicipedidæ (which see for technical characters); a diving bird, related to the loons or divers, but pinnatiped or lobe-footed, with a rudimentary tail, naked lores, and, in most species, a crest on the head.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of several swimming birds or divers, of the genus Colymbus (formerly Podiceps), and allied genera, found in the northern parts of America, Europe, and Asia. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.

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

  • noun Any of several waterbirds in the cosmopolitan family Podicipedidae. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.

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

  • noun small compact-bodied almost completely aquatic bird that builds floating nests; similar to loons but smaller and with lobate rather than webbed feet

Etymologies

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

[French grèbe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French grèbe.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "'There were so many boxes on the floor... indeed, there was so little room for me that I almost fell into the sea, at times.'

    'Could you not have tossed the worst overboard?'

    'The kind almoner had tied them down so tight, and the knots were wet; and in any case the worst, which sat upon three several ropes, held my grebe, my flightless Titicaca grebe. You would never have expected me to throw away a flightless grebe, for all love?'"

    --P. O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 224

    March 16, 2008

  • :-)

    March 17, 2008