LAPWING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Lapwing

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noun

Lapwing n. (Zool.) A small European bird of the Plover family (Vanellus cristatus, or Vanellus vanellus). It has long and broad wings, and is noted for its rapid, irregular fight, upwards, downwards, and in circles. Its back is coppery or greenish bronze. Its eggs are the "plover's eggs" of the London market, esteemed a delicacy. It is called also peewit, dastard plover, and wype. The gray lapwing is the Squatarola cinerea.

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Etymology of 'Lapwing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lapwing" Quotes from Famous Books

... think him better than I say, And yet would herein others' eyes were worse: Far from her nest the lapwing cries, away; My heart prays for him, though my ...

— The Comedy of Errors • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... approach, and a shot at them through a gap in a hedge will often bring down four or five. Later on the poacher takes them at roost. They roost on the ground in a circle, heads outwards, much in the same position as the eggs of a lapwing. The spot is marked; and at night, having crept up near enough, the poacher fires at the spot itself rather than at the birds, with a gun loaded with a moderate charge of powder, but a large quantity of shot, that it may spread wide. On moderately light nights he can ...

— The Life of the Fields • Richard Jefferies

Words linked to "Lapwing" : peewit, Vanellus, plover, green plover, pewit