Definition of "hawfinch" [haw•finch]

• A Eurasian bird (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) having a thick bill, a short, white-tipped tail, and brown, white, and black plumage. (noun)
• Any of various birds similar or related to this bird. (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.

• "The books told me that a hawfinch could exert enough pressure with its beak to squeeze a cherry stone until it popped and surrendered its soft heart."
• "The most curious fact is the perfect gradation in the size of the beaks in the different species of Geospiza, from one as large as that of a hawfinch to that of a chaffinch, and (if Mr. Gould is right in including his sub-group, Certhidea, in the main group) even to that of a warbler."
• "This and the two following numbers, 26 and 27, are only required for the humming birds; 28 is, however, a good size for the least. 24 will be found a good size for the smaller kinds of warblers and finches up to canaries. 21 is a useful general size for a great number of small birds, and will do for such a bird as the hawfinch."