Definition of "tanager" [tan•a•ger]

• Any of various small New World passerine birds of the family Thraupidae, often having brightly colored plumage in the males and usually living in forests. (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.

• "Sangre de toro is a tanager with a breast and throat carpeted, it seemed, with crimson velvet."
• "I could certainly relate, though I doubt my wife would have been amused if I was delivering a commencement address on love and the best I could come up with was a scarlet tanager."
• "The scarlet tanager appears more bloodred than human blood."