hummingbird

[ huhm-ing-burd ]

noun

1. a very small nectar-sipping New World bird of the family Trochilidae, characterized by the brilliant, iridescent plumage of the male, a slender bill, and narrow wings, the extremely rapid beating of which produces a humming humming sound: noted for their ability to hover and to fly upward, downward, and backward in a horizontal position.

hummingbird

/ ˈhʌmɪŋˌbɜːd /

noun

1. any very small American bird of the family Trochilidae, having a brilliant iridescent plumage, long slender bill, and wings specialized for very powerful vibrating flight: order Apodiformes

Word History and Origins

Origin of hummingbird¹

An Americanism dating back to 1625–35; humming + bird

Example Sentences

The strategy seems meant to address the hummingbird effect of people flitting from one streaming subscription to another each month, as sought-after shows and movies leave one service and land on another.

From Digiday

He should be wintering down south with the hummingbirds, but he’s drawing crowds at the C&O Canal.

From Washington Post

There shouldn’t be a hummingbird at Green Spring Gardens this time of year.

From Washington Post

The Nazca people created these images—depicting such characters as a whale, a hummingbird, and an astronaut-esque man—nearly 2,000 years ago.

From Popular-Science

A security consultant receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit containing a taxidermic hummingbird.

From Fortune

Take Huitzilopochtli, the typically tongue-twisting Aztec name of an old hummingbird god.

From The Daily Beast

The L.A. indie rockers are back with Hummingbird, the highly anticipated follow-up to their acclaimed debut, Gorilla Manor.

From The Daily Beast

The home now has a new locked metal mailbox decorated with an intricate metal hummingbird and scorpion.

From The Daily Beast

My eldest son, a sleepy teenager, found a damp baby hummingbird, dazed and confused.

From The Daily Beast

After her death, they said, they saw her in the trees, in the hummingbird's flight, in the clouds.

From The Daily Beast

I have try lately to console myself to find another woman, as much as it is possible like my hummingbird.

From Project Gutenberg

Then comes a ball to which I shall wear a frock all little fluttering iridescent draperies, suggesting an airy hummingbird.

From Project Gutenberg

Hummingbird was a charming boat in every respect, comparatively roomy, a good sea boat, and a wonderful performer to windward.

From Project Gutenberg

The wee mother hummingbird never left her nest on the lower oak limb.

From Project Gutenberg

Their nests are among the most beautiful of bird architecture, even surpassing that of the Hummingbird.

From Project Gutenberg