broadbill

American  

[brawd-bil] / ˈbrɔdˌbɪl /

noun

1. any of several small, often brightly colored passerine birds of the family Eurylaimidae, of the Old World tropics, having a broad, flattened bill.

2. any of various birds with a broad bill, as the scaup duck, shoveler, and spoonbill.

---

broadbill British  

/ ˈbrɔːdˌbɪl /

noun

1. any passerine bird of the family Eurylaimidae , of tropical Africa and Asia, having bright plumage and a short wide bill

2. any of various wide-billed birds, such as the scaup and shoveler

3. another name for swordfish

---

Etymology

Origin of broadbill

First recorded in 1625–35; broad + bill ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

broadbill

In 1927 Oliver Cromwell Grinnell, prosperous lithographer of Bay Shore, L. I., introduced broadbill fishing to the East, where heretofore the tuna was the largest game fish sought.

From Time Magazine Archive

Because its soft mouth is hard to hook and harder to keep hooked, the giant broadbill swordfish, one of the seas' sportiest inhabitants, is the most difficult fish to take on rod & reel.

From Time Magazine Archive

Tommy Gifford and Larry Bagby in a 15-foot dory whose starboard gunwale, weighed down by the massive head of a broadbill swordfish, is level with the water.

From Time Magazine Archive

Taxidermist Parker, no novice at fish painting, once tinted a broadbill purple for R. H. Grey, brother of Author Zane Grey, who assured her that was the way they looked under water.

From Time Magazine Archive

It could have been a marlin or a broadbill or a shark.

From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway