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. See auk, and Illust. 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 north Atlantic.

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

From razor +‎ bill

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Examples

Comments

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  • "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