Definition of "tinamou" [tin•a•mou]

• Any of various chickenlike or quaillike birds of the family Tinamidae, living in grasslands and jungles of Central and South America. (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.

• "But the flightless giants are also genetically similar to a little-known neotropical bird called a tinamou—a grouse-like creature whose short, rounded wings enable somewhat clumsy but swift, flapping flight."
• "The most characteristic pampean birds are the tinamous -- called partridges in the vernacular -- the rufous tinamou, large as a fowl, and the spotted tinamou, which is about the size of the English partridge."
• "In Indian literature, oral is important, as well as the worship of the tinamou."