puffin

American  

[puhf-in] / ˈpʌf ɪn /

noun

1. any of several alcidine sea birds of the genera Fratercula and Lunda, having a short neck and a large, compressed, grooved bill, as F. arctica Atlantic puffin, of the North Atlantic.

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puffin British  

/ ˈpʌfɪn /

noun

1. any of various northern diving birds of the family Alcidae (auks, etc), esp Fratercula arctica ( common or Atlantic puffin ), having a black-and-white plumage and a brightly coloured vertically flattened bill: order Charadriiformes

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Etymology

Origin of puffin

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English poffoun, poffin, puffon (compare Anglo-Latin poffo, puffo ); origin uncertain

Example Sentences

Ospreys diving for fish, mountain hares in the snow, puffins with bills full of sand eels, red squirrels, beavers and even a lynx.

From BBC

Handa's last human inhabitants left in the 19th Century, leaving the island to its tens of thousands of seabirds such as puffins, guillemots and razorbills.

From BBC

Then in spring this year, cameras set up as part of the rat eradication programme caught two puffins coming and going from a nesting burrow on the cliff ledges.

From BBC

There were seagulls and puffins and cormorants and vultures and skuas and terns and sandpipers and eagles and every other type of northern bird, all flying together.

From Literature

The country's flora and fauna will feature on them all, with animals including the red squirrel, puffin and dormouse depicted.

From BBC