Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several birds of the genus Bombycilla of the Northern Hemisphere, having a crested head, grayish-brown plumage, and usually waxy red tips on the wing feathers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An oscine passerine bird of the genus Ampelis (or Bombycilia), family Ampelidæ: so called because the secondary quills of the wings, and sometimes other feathers of the wings or tail, are tipped with small red horny appendages resembling sealing-wax.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of small birds of the genus Ampelis, in which some of the secondary quills are usually tipped with small horny ornaments resembling red sealing wax. The Bohemian waxwing (see under
bohemian ) and the cedar bird are examples. Called alsowaxbird .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several
songbirds of thegenus Bombycilla , havingcrested heads , andred tips to thewings .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun brown velvety-plumaged songbirds of the northern hemisphere having crested heads and red waxy wing tips
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The name waxwing is due to the scarlet ornaments at the tips of the lesser flight feathers and some of the tail feathers, which resemble bits of red sealing wax, but which are really the bare, flattened ends of the feather shafts.
The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
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The name waxwing refers to the bright red bead-like tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax but which several hundred years ago were seen as flames from hell carrying all manner of unspeakable epidemics.
sionnach commented on the word waxwing
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
(John Shade, 1959)
November 28, 2008
yarb commented on the word waxwing
Shade! A peerless poet, a visionary genius.
November 29, 2008