Definition of "shrike" [shrike]

• Any of various carnivorous oscine birds of the family Laniidae, having a screeching call and a strong hooked bill with a toothlike projection and often impaling its prey on sharp-pointed thorns or barbs of wire fencing. (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.

• "Sometimes we would carry 500 lb bombs, sometimes 750 lb bombs, sometimes 1000 lb bombs, and other times 3000 lb bombs as well as CBU and what they call a shrike missile."
• "She looked around: the kanji composition that he had received from Philip Yano hung on one wall and on the other was a brush painting of a bird called a shrike sitting on a twisted piece of limb."
• "Still more melodious is the call of the wood-shrike, which is frequently heard at this season, and indeed during the greater part of the year."