Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various widely distributed shorebirds of the family Charadriidae, having rounded bodies, short tails, and short bills.
- noun Any of various similar or related birds.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bird of the family Charadriidæ and genus Charadrius, C. pluvialis.
- noun Hence Some or any bird of the family Charadriidæ; a charadriomorphic grallatorial bird.
- noun In various parts of the United States, the Bartramian sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, more fully called upland, highland, pasture, field, corn-field, prairie, grass, and plain plover. See cut under
Bartramia . - noun The greater or lesser yellowshanks, Totanus melanoleucus or T. flavipes, commonly called
yellow-legged plovers . [Local, U. S.] A loose woman: otherwise called a quail. - noun The black-heart plover. [Local, U. S.]
- noun The golden plover when young. [Ireland.]
- noun Sqvatarola helvetica
- noun The Norfolk plover. [Various localities.]
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of limicoline birds belonging to the family
Charadridæ , and especially those belonging to the subfamilyCharadrinsæ . They are prized as game birds. - noun (Zoöl.) Any grallatorial bird allied to, or resembling, the true plovers, as the crab plover (
Dromas ardeola ); the American upland, plover (Bartramia longicauda ); and other species of sandpipers. - noun (Zoöl.) the lapwing.
- noun See
Tattler . - noun [Prov. Eng.] the dunlin.
- noun [Prov. Eng.] the black-bellied plover.
- noun The black-bellied plover.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of various wading birds of the family
Charadriidae .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of numerous chiefly shorebirds of relatively compact build having straight bills and large pointed wings; closely related to the sandpipers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Sometimes we shot so-called plover along on the shore, sometimes wild chicken in the bush.
In the South Seas Robert Louis Stevenson 1872
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Interpreters and volunteers - called plover guardians - ensure safe viewing of these rare birds.
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Stating that tourists are surprised to see these birds in Antalya, Erdoğan said birds such as the spur-winged plover, which is seen less and less in Europe, have laid over 50 eggs in the region.
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The wild mountain tract which stretched on either side of the road presented one bleak and brown surface, unrelieved by any trace of tillage or habitation; an apparently endless succession of fern-clad hills lay on every side; above, the gloomy sky of leaden, lowering aspect, frowned darkly; the sad and wailing cry of the pewet or the plover was the only sound that broke the stillness, and far as the eye could reach, a dreary waste extended.
Charles O'Malley — Volume 2 Charles James Lever 1839
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The kind of plover which appears as if mounted on stilts
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The kind of plover which appears as if mounted on stilts
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For ever and a day, the name of these birds was "plover", pronounced to rhyme with "lover."
grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002
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The kind of plover, which appears as if mounted on stilts (Himantopus nigricollis), is here common in flocks of considerable size.
Chapter VI 1909
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The lapwing is a kind of plover, and is very swift of foot.
The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton John Burroughs 1879
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The only kind of plover in the Forest is the green plover or lapwing, which were very numerous at one time in the wet greens.
The Forest of Dean An Historical and Descriptive Account 1846
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