Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various small, often olive-gray flycatchers of the genus Contopus of the Americas, especially a wood pewee.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small olivaceous flycatcher of the family Tyrannidæ and genus Contopus.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A common American tyrant flycatcher (Sayornis phœbe, or Sayornis fuscus). Called also pewit, and phœbe.
  • noun Local, U.S. The woodcock.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a bird (Contopus virens) similar to the pewee (See Pewee, 1), but of smaller size.

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

  • noun Common American tyrant flycatchers (of the genus Contopus).

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

  • noun small olive-colored woodland flycatchers of eastern North America

Etymologies

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

[Imitative of its call.]

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Examples

  • The pewee is the first bird to pipe up in the morning; and, during the early summer he preludes his matutinal ejaculation of

    Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader Being Selections from the Chief American Writers Benj. N. Martin

  • Since Sept. 5, the pewee, which is native to Cuba and the Bahamas, has been seen repeatedly for several days.

    marconews.com Stories 2010

  • Since Sept. 5, the pewee, which is native to Cuba and the Bahamas, has been seen repeatedly for several days.

    Naples Daily News Stories 2010

  • We had a pewee along the creek behind our house for most of this past summer, and its entertaining song is highly recognizable to me now.

    Archive 2007-11-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • I have a feeling the pewee annoyed the film crew, who tried to get as much footage without its distracting call as they could.

    Archive 2007-11-01 James F. McGrath 2007

  • On the third or fourth of May I saw a loon in the pond, and during the first week of the month I heard the whip-poor-will, the brown thrasher, the veery, the wood pewee, the chewink, and other birds.

    Walden 2004

  • There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us.

    Walden 2004

  • Thought I heard a western wood pewee last week, but it was just a starling imitating the pewee song.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002

  • Have no idea why a starling would imitate a pewee.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002

  • The wood pewee, like its relative, the phoebe, feeds largely on the family of flies to which the house fly belongs.

    Bird Day; How to prepare for it Charles Almanzo Babcock

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