Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various grouse of the genus Lagopus, inhabiting arctic, subarctic, and alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere and having feathered legs and feet and plumage that is brown or gray in summer and white in winter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A bird of the family Tetraonidæ and genus Lagopus, having feathered feet.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any grouse of the genus Lagopus, of which numerous species are known. The feet are completely feathered. Most of the species are brown in summer, but turn white, or nearly white, in winter.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of three
species of smallgrouse in thegenus Lagopus found insubarctic tundra areas ofNorth America andEurasia .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun large Arctic and subarctic grouse with feathered feet and usually white winter plumage
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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I saw there also a beautiful white bird called a ptarmigan, which is a grouse, but it could not be caught.
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We were far into the Brooks Range foothills now, at 3,100 feet, and perhaps the altitude would pay bonus points in ptarmigan.
How and Where to Hunt and Fish on Alaska's Dalton Highway 2004
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The people who worked here followed the ancient custom of nature, whereby the ptarmigan is the color of dead leaves in the fall and of snow in the winter, and the chameleon, who is black when he lies upon a stump and turns green when he moves to a leaf.
The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1923
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The people who worked here followed the ancient custom of nature, whereby the ptarmigan is the color of dead leaves in the fall and of snow in the winter, and the chameleon, who is black when he lies upon a stump and turns green when he moves to a leaf.
The Jungle 1906
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The enemies of the ptarmigan are the larger birds of prey, and animals of the weasel kind.
Chatterbox, 1906 Various 1873
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Among birds, the ptarmigan is a fine example of protective colouring.
Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868
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We used to get on to this lande by walking up the bed of a rivulet, and once on it we had perfect massacres of winged game, especially of that sort of gray grouse called ptarmigan by the English.
Memoirs (Vieux Souvenirs) of the Prince de Joinville Prince De Joinville 1859
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After the soup, we had turbot, and by and by a bottle of Chateau Margaux, very delectable; and then some lambs 'feet, delicately done, and some cutlets of I know not what peculiar type; and finally a ptarmigan, which is of the same race of birds as the grouse, but feeds high up towards the summits of the Scotch mountains.
Passages from the English Notebooks, Complete Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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After the soup, we had turbot, and by and by a bottle of Chateau Margaux, very delectable; and then some lambs 'feet, delicately done, and some cutlets of I know not what peculiar type; and finally a ptarmigan, which is of the same race of birds as the grouse, but feeds high up towards the summits of the Scotch mountains.
Passages from the English Notebooks, Volume 2. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834
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Even medium-sized birds and mammals such as ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) and hares seek thermal refuges in snow caves when resting.
yesjustryan commented on the word ptarmigan
/ˈtɑrmɪgən/
July 10, 2009
qroqqa commented on the word ptarmigan
An utterly pointless <p>, by confusion with Greek pter-, to which it is completely unrelated. It's from Scots Gaelic tàrmachan, itself of unclear origin.
July 10, 2009
jennie commented on the word ptarmigan
On Chicken, Alaska
July 11, 2009