black-backed gull

[ blak-bakt ]

noun
  1. any of several white gulls, as Larus marinus(great black-backed gull ), having a black back and wings.

Origin of black-backed gull

1
First recorded in 1770–80

Words Nearby black-backed gull

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use black-backed gull in a sentence

  • It seemed to me, forsooth, that a great black-backed gull or fierce skua would give me a fine flight or two.

    Wulfric the Weapon Thane | Charles W. Whistler
  • They went on while the sand got softer, but they saw nothing except a few small wading birds and a black-backed gull.

    Johnstone of the Border | Harold Bindloss
  • This bird, though called "lesser," is larger than any of the other gulls, except the herring gull and the great black-backed gull.

    Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire | John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot
  • This species is one of the largest and most powerful of the gull family, only surpassed by the Great black-backed gull.

    Bird Guide | Chester A. Reed
  • A personal acquaintance of the Doctor was a black-backed gull which had been in captivity for thirty-two years.

British Dictionary definitions for black-backed gull

black-backed gull

noun
  1. either of two common black-and-white European coastal gulls, Larus fuscus (lesser black-backed gull) and L. marinus (great black-backed gull)

  2. Also called: karoro a southern gull, larus dominicanus, with black feathers on its back

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012