Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several small grayish birds of the widely distributed genus Regulus, having a yellowish or reddish patch on the crown of the head.
- noun A king ruling a kingdom considered small or unimportant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A little king; a weak or insignificant king.
- noun A golden-crested or ruby-crowned wren: one of a number of very diminutive greenish birds, about 4 inches long, having a yellow, orange, or flaming crest, constituting the subfamily Regulinæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A little king; a weak or insignificant king.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of small singing birds of the genus Regulus and family
Sylviidæ .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A petty king; a king ruling over a small or unimportant territory.
- noun A
bird of thecrest family (Regulidae ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small birds resembling warblers but having some of the habits of titmice
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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For the kinglet was a small boy with a long, freckled face, blue eyes, a pug nose, and black hair banged across his forehead, and hanging in lank, straight locks far down over his shoulders.
John Dough And The Cherub Baum, L. Frank 1906
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Among the birds enumerated by Kuhn and others as representing the storm-cloud are likewise the wren or "kinglet" (French roitelet); the owl, sacred to Athene; the cuckoo, stork, and sparrow; and the red-breasted robin, whose name Robert was originally an epithet of the lightning-god Thor.
Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology 1872
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"Our kinglet is a hard master," said he, with a sigh, "and I really wish some one would get up a revolution and dethrone him.
John Dough And The Cherub Baum, L. Frank 1906
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Martyr says: "They call a kinglet (_regulus_) Cacicus, as we have said elsewhere, in other places Quebi, in some places also Tiba.
The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 Various 1884
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Suspecting a ruby-crowned kinglet, I confirmed its identity on the app, then hit the birdsong play button.
This App Is for the Birds Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011
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We saw an energetic, olive-colored bird in the sugar bush, a ruby-crowned kinglet, which Eric called the smallest bird with the biggest song.
The Dirty Life Kristin Kimball 2010
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Certainly he did not give voice to the contempt that he felt for this petty kinglet and mageling.
Widows and Orphans R. Daniel Lester 2010
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Common birds include the mountain bluebird, chestnut-backed chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, ruby-crowned kinglet, pygmy nuthatch, gray jay, Steller's jay, and Clark's nutcracker.
Southern Rocky Mountain Steppe - OpenWoodland - Coniferous Forest - Alpine Meadow Province (Bailey) 2009
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Regulus satrapa by Dave Rintoul — golden-crowned kinglet, male, captured at a winter bird-banding site near Ft.
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Regulus satrapa – golden-crowned kinglet, male, captured at a winter bird-banding site near Ft.
reesetee commented on the word kinglet
Unbearably cute.
August 11, 2008
bilby commented on the word kinglet
So plump!
August 11, 2008
reesetee commented on the word kinglet
Yes! I think it looks even more so because it has a little round head with no "shoulders" to speak of.
August 11, 2008