Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large auk (Alca torda) of the northern Atlantic, having black-and-white plumage, a long tail, and a flattened bill.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The razor-billed auk, or tinker, Alca or Utamania torda, so called from the deep, compressed, and trenchant bill.
- noun The skimmer or cutwater, Rhynchops nigra. See
skimmer and Rhynchops.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A species of auk (
Alca torda ) common in the Arctic seas. Seeauk , andIllust. in Appendix. - noun See
cutwater , 3.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A large black and white
auk ,Alca torda , native to the northAtlantic .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun black-and-white northern Atlantic auk having a compressed sharp-edged bill
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Kvarken Archipelago is on an important migratory route and offers excellent breeding habitats for birds: There are important Baltic populations of black guillemot Cepphus grille (6,000 pairs, a quarter of the Baltic population) and razorbill Alca torda (1,000 pairs); also Caspian and Arctic terns Sterna caspia and S. paradisea, whitetailed eagle Haliaetus albicilla (35 pairs), osprey Pandion haliaetus andgreat scaup Aythya marila.
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The boy was still protesting when a razorbill, startled from its nesting place, burst from the crevasse directly beneath his feet in a flurry of feathers.
The Edge of Madness Michael Dobbs 2008
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I tried it on a razorbill (Alta torda, 1.), which I placed in a "preparation" jar, filled with common benzoline at 1 s. per gallon.
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Adverbially is a employable disney tickets florida of what struthio when ilion tenpin his spirochaetaceae pyrolytic razorbill escadrille at the tolerably of the dumping.
Rational Review 2009
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(Yunx Torquilla), buff blackbird (Turdus merula), razorbill (Alca Torda), little auk (Mergulus Alia), ruff (Machetes Pugnax), green sand piper
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter James Conway Walter
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On my mantelpiece is a line of skulls: a razorbill, a pink-footed goose, a gray heron, a fulmar, some gulls, and Lucian’s gannet, whose bill with a jagged lightning-strike fracture gives away its cause of death; it must have misjudged a dive.
A Year on the Wing TIM DEE 2009
hernesheir commented on the word razorbill
"In the Hebrides this bird is called falk or faik."
--Neill's (P.) Tour through some of the islands of Orkney and Shetland. Edinburgh, 1806, p. 197. Cited in Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
May 17, 2011