curlew

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large migratory wading bird of the genus Numenius, with long legs and a long slender bill curved downward

   A curlew probed the tidal mud with its curved bill.

2. 2
   noun

   part of the name stone-curlew, applied to several long-legged land birds unrelated to true curlews

   The stone-curlew remained motionless among the pale rocks.

From Middle English curlew and Old French courlieu, probably imitative of the bird's ringing call. The English form may also have been influenced by an old word for a runner, fitting the bird's quick movement across open ground.

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