buzzard

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   In North America, a curmudgeonly or cantankerous man; an old person; a mean, greedy person.

   Perhaps the crusty old buzzard loved his only child more than anyone had given him credit for all these years — maybe even more than he himself had realized.

2. 2
   noun

   A blockhead; a dunce.

   1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 142, An old man’s shadow is better than a young buzzard’s sword.

3. 3
   noun

   the common European short-winged hawk

4. 4
   noun

   a New World vulture that is common in South America and Central America and the southern United States

5. 5
   noun

   Any of several Old World birds of prey of the genus Buteo with broad wings and a broad tail.

6. 6
   noun

   Any scavenging bird, such as the American black vulture (Coragyps atratus) or the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura).

7. 7
   noun

   Synonym of double bogey.

8. 8
   noun

   A fighter plane.

Etymology

From Middle English bosart, from Anglo-Norman buisart, from Old French busart, busard, a derivative ( + -ard) of Old French buison, buson (French buse), possibly from Latin būteō (“hawk”).