Definition of "shearwater" []

• Any of various oceanic birds of the genus Puffinus, having a short hooked bill with tube-shaped nostrils and long slender wings that appear to shear the water as the bird flies along the surface. (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 shearwater was a larger species of tern, or sea-swallow; the"
• "a gull-like bird called a shearwater belong to the "tube-nosed swimmers," on account of their curious long beaks."
• ""shearwater" (Puffinus cinereus), which is found on the coast of"