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Definition of "curlew" [cur•lew]

  • Any of several brownish, long-legged shore birds of the genus Numenius, having long, slender, downward-curving bills. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "curlew" in a sentence
  • "The screaming of the curlew is faintly heard even at this distancehe continues to ascend, and the hawk persevere's in her spiral motion, until she has gain'd the upper flight, then hovering makes a pounce swift as lightening on the exhausted curlew, and closing her wings both fall together, until within thirty or forty yards of the ground, when opening them she is by the resisting air brought upper:"
  • "Except these, the plover and the curlew are the only inhabitants until you come to the Chesterfield high road."
  • "The curlew is the most conspicuous; indeed its loud, incessant clamor, its erect carriage, and the intense curiosity which possesses it, and which makes it come up to circle around any strange object, all combine to make it in springtime one of the most conspicuous features of plains life."
Words like "curlew"
Bristle-thighed Curlew
Eastern Curlew
eskimo curlew
european curlew
Numenius madagascariensis
Numenius minutus
Numenius tahitiensis
Numenius tenuirostris
shore bird shorebird
Slender-billed Curlew