Definition of "windhover" [wind•hov•er]

• Chiefly British A kestrel. (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.

• "This beautiful picture of a flying kestrel, or windhover, is courtesy of the folks at Stanford University: www. stanford.edu/~petelat1/kestrel. jpg"
• "The novelist Nicholas Royle would be heartbroken if the "windhover" were to vanish."
• "But from April onwards, as the air temperature rises, these beautiful falcons rise up again, amply justifying their wonderful folk-name, the windhover, made famous by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins."