Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The largest and commonest ring-plover of North America, Ægialites vociferus: so called in imitation of its shrill two-syllabled note.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A small American plover (
Charadrius vociferus , formerlyÆgialitis vocifera ) of inland waters and fields having a distinctive cry. The adult has two black bands around the neck and upper breast, but the young chick has only the breast band. It ranges from Canada to Mexico and the West Indies.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative form of
killdeer .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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There in the dim, sweet woods, with the smoke curling up into the leafy masses above, the sunlight just dropping upon the lake, the killdee, the robin, and the blue jay crying in the still, cool morning air.
Short Stories of Various Types Various
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It is probable that plover killdee should be substituted in the foregoing lists of clans, for the name clearly refers to the killdee's habit of running along the clean sand at the water's edge.
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He's pine-blank as happy now as a killdee by a mill-race.
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It would be better than golf -- to sit with him on the store porch on a sunny day listening to the mill rumbling by the creek and the killdee whistling in the meadow, to watch the shadows crawl along the mountains, and now and then to hear Bill Hansen say something.
David Malcolm Nelson Lloyd 1903
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Below us a stone mill grumbled over its unending task, and from the meadows came the blithe call of the killdee.
David Malcolm Nelson Lloyd 1903
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Let the wailing of the killdee be the only sound we hear:
Riley Farm-Rhymes James Whitcomb Riley 1882
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The noise of the talking and laughing and the formless progress of the mob hushed the nearer night voices of the fields and woods; but from a distance the shuddering cry of a screech-owl could be heard; and the melancholy call of a killdee in a pasture beside the creek.
The Leatherwood God William Dean Howells 1878
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He ran along before the children as nimbly as a killdee, talking and laughing all the time.
Little Mr. Thimblefinger and His Queer Country Joel Chandler Harris 1878
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But when I at's him ag'in, to lock legs or kick ankles, dar he's 'way off yander, a-tippin' it on his toes, like a killdee.
Burl Morrison Heady 1872
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"That's all right," he continued, as the son closed in on me: "I kin handle the little killdee by myself ....
Fibble, D.D. Tony Sarg 1910
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