tomtit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   chiefly British: a small tit, especially the blue tit

   A blue tomtit clung upside down to the feeder outside the window.

2. 2
   noun

   a small New Zealand songbird of the Australasian robin family, Petroica macrocephala

   The South Island tomtit searched the bark for insects.

A compound of the familiar male name Tom + tit, an old name for a small bird. The hyphenated spelling tom-tit is historical and still encountered, while the closed form tomtit is now common.

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