Definition of "great auk" []

• A large flightless sea bird (Pinguinus impennis) formerly common on northern Atlantic coasts but extinct since the middle of the 19th century. (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.

• "Native to islands of the North Atlantic, it might have escaped total eradication by humans if not for the fact that, unlike puffins and murrelets, the great auk was flightless."