Definitions

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

  • noun Archaic An osprey.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The osprey.
  • noun The lammergeier, Gypaëtus barbatus.

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

  • noun obsolete, obsolete The lammergeir.
  • noun obsolete The young of the sea eagle or bald eagle.

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

  • noun obsolete The lammergeier.
  • noun obsolete The young of the sea eagle or bald eagle.

Etymologies

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

[Latin ossifraga, from ossifragus, bone-breaking : os, oss-, bone; see ost- in Indo-European roots + frangere, to break; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin ossifraga ("osprey"), ossifragus ("osprey"), from ossifragus ("bone breaking").

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Examples

  • The bones he cracks [hence the appropriateness of the name ossifrage, i.e., "bone-breaker"] by letting them fall on a rock from a great height.

    Easton's Bible Dictionary M.G. Easton 1897

  • It well deserves its name ossifrage, bone breaker, for "not only does he push kids and lambs and even men off the rocks, but he takes the bones of animals that other birds of prey have denuded of the flesh high up into the air and lets them fall upon a stone in order to crack them and render them more digestible even for his enormous powers of deglutition.

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • DEU 14: 12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

    Think Progress » VIDEO: House Conservatives Reveal What God Thinks About Gay Marriage Amendment 2006

  • “Not to eat the pelican, nor the ossifrage, nor the griffin, nor the ixion, nor the eel, nor the hare, because the hare ruminates, and has not its foot cloven.”

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray

    Probably Just One Of Those Funny Coincidences 2006

  • Got one step closer to eliminating spam in my ossifrage guestbook.

    Ohhhhhhhkay ailbhe 2006

  • But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray

    Villaraigosa And Nunez Cut And Run - Video Report 2006

  • And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray

    Villaraigosa And Nunez Cut And Run - Video Report 2006

  • And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray

    Probably Just One Of Those Funny Coincidences 2006

  • First, saved from waters of old Nile, among bulrushes, a bed of fasciated wattles: at last the cavity of a mountain, an occulted sepulchre amid the conclamation of the hillcat and the ossifrage.

    Ulysses 2003

Comments

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  • "... at last the cavity of a mountain, an occulted sepulchre amid the conclamation of the hillcat and the ossifrage."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 14

    January 20, 2007

  • Bone-eating vulture - see Lammergeier.

    March 6, 2007

  • quebrantahuesos

    also, osprey

    October 16, 2007

  • A bird word I actually missed! All better now. ;-)

    October 16, 2007

  • This page hurts my head.

    October 16, 2007

  • What, you don't care for occulted sepulchres amid the conclamation of the hillcat and the ossifrage? Spoilsport.

    October 16, 2007

  • Ow. Anyway it wasn't just that, it's the whole page!

    October 16, 2007