Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pluck; fleece; strip of money by the tricks of gambling.
- noun Any bird of the family Columbidæ (which see for technical characters); a dove. ; ;
- noun A simpleton to be swindled; a gull: opposed to rook. See
stool-pigeon . - noun A toy consisting of a light propeller-wheel, which, on being made to revolve rapidly by means of a string wound about a shaft on which it rests, rises in the air in a short flight.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb Slang To pluck; to fleece; to swindle by tricks in gambling.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any bird of the order Columbæ, of which numerous species occur in nearly all parts of the world.
- noun Slang An unsuspected victim of sharpers; a gull.
- noun (Zoöl.) an Australian passerine bird (
Graucalus melanops ); -- called alsoblack-faced crow . - noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of Old World pigeons belonging to the family
Treronidæ . - noun (Zoöl.) any one of the large Asiatic fruit pigeons of the genus Carpophada.
- noun (Bot.) the purplish black fruit of the pokeweed; also, the plant itself. See
Pokeweed . - noun an extraordinary and grotesque dialect, employed in the commercial cities of China, as the medium of communication between foreign merchants and the Chinese. Its base is English, with a mixture of Portuguese and Hindustani.
- noun (Bot.) a kind of foxtail grass (
Setaria glauca ), of some value as fodder. The seeds are eagerly eaten by pigeons and other birds. - noun (Zoöl.) The American sharp-shinned hawk (
Accipiter velox orAccipiter fuscus ). - noun An old English game, in which balls were rolled through little arches.
- noun a dovecote.
- noun (Bot.) the seed of
Cajanus Indicus ; a kind of pulse used for food in the East and West Indies; also, the plant itself. - noun (Bot.) the edible drupes of two West African species of Chrysobalanus (
Chrysobalanus ellipticus andChrysobalanus luteus ). - noun (Zoöl.) See under
Tremex . - noun (Bot.) a name in the West Indies for the wood of several very different kinds of trees, species of Dipholis, Diospyros, and Coccoloba.
- noun (Zoöl.) the flicker.
- noun (Zoöl.), [Local, U.S.] The golden plover.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One of several birds of the family
Columbidae , which consists of more than 300 species. - noun slang A person who is a
target orvictim of aconfidence game . - verb transitive to
deceive with aconfidence game
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun wild and domesticated birds having a heavy body and short legs
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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RUCerious, desert pigeon is a member in fine standing with the 101st chairborne.
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The pulses race with "Report of cat trapped at address in Tameside", only to deflate with the note that the stool-pigeon is a regular nuisance caller.
Bobbies on the tweet - police go online Stephen Bates 2010
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The problem with eating pigeon is what they are made up of - you must know what they eat??!!
Pigeon: The other, other white meat? Tyler 2009
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If the animal, say a pigeon is slaughtered in a humane way for a purpose then hey ho.
Teenager charged with pigeon death « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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Now a one-footed pigeon is riding in my tube carriage.
I hope when the end comes it is painless amuchmoreexotic 2008
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This last came by carrier pigeon from the Fuhrer Bunker.
Archive 2007-07-01 2007
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Despite being told that the passenger pigeon is extinct, Fibber claims he sees one every day.
Archive 2007-11-01 2007
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The story of the passenger pigeon is not yet over.
The Song of the Passenger Pigeon Heather McDougal 2007
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Hi Pille, thank you, Im glad you like them, this pigeon is certainly getting his due!
The cleanest bird in Paris.. Michele 2005
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He won the House of Commons steeplechase and founded the most celebrated bloodstock line in pigeon racing.
Archive 2005-12-01 2005
sionnach commented on the word pigeon
PIGEONS
David Hernandez (1991)
Pigeons are the spiks of Birdland.
They are survivors of blood, fire and stone.
They can’t afford to fly south
or a Florida winter home.
Most everybody passing up a pigeon pack
tries to break it up because they move funny
and seem to be dancing like young street thugs
with an 18-foot, 10-speaker Sanyo book box radio
on a 2-foot red shoulder strap.
Pigeons have feathers of a different color.
They are too bright to be dull
and too dull to be bright
so they are not accepted anywhere.
Nobody wants to give pigeons a job.
Parakeets, canaries and parrots
have the market sown up as far as that goes.
They live in fancy cages, get 3 meals a day
for a song and dance routine.
When was the last time you saw a pigeon
in someone’s home?
Unless they bleached their feathers white
and try to pass off as doves,
you will never see pet pigeons.
Besides, their accents give them away
when they start cooing.
Once in a while, some creatures will treat them decent.
They are known as pigeon ladies, renegades,
or bleeding-heart Liberals.
What they do is build these wooden cages
on rooftops that look like huge
pigeon housing projects
where they freeze during the winters
and get their little claws stuck in tar
on hot summer days
No wonder they are pigeon-toed.
I tell you,
Pigeons are the spiks of Birdland.
There is a specific indentation pattern to the original poem that is lost here, but can be seen at this website (unfortunately at the price of a background pattern that makes reading particularly hard, for me at any rate)
Pigeons
March 15, 2009