wren

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a very small, active songbird, typically brown, with a short upright tail

   A wren darted into the hedge with a twig in its beak.

From Middle English wrenne or wranne, from Old English wrenna and related forms. Cognates occur elsewhere in West Germanic, but the deeper origin is uncertain. The familiar English bird is the Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes; the wider wren family is chiefly New World.

Topics