bullfinch

¹ American  

[bool-finch] / ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ /

noun

1. a European finch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, often kept as a pet, the male of which has a black, white, and bluish-gray back and a rosy breast.

2. any of several related or similar birds.

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bullfinch ² American  

[bool-finch] / ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ /

noun

1. a hedge high enough to impede mounted hunters.

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bullfinch ¹ British  

/ ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ /

noun

1. a common European finch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula : the male has a bright red throat and breast, black crown, wings, and tail, and a grey-and-white back

2. any of various similar finches

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bullfinch ² British  

/ ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ /

noun

1. a high thick hedge too difficult for a horse and rider to jump

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Etymology

Origin of bullfinch¹

1560–70; bull ¹ (perhaps in sense “bull-necked”) + finch

Origin of bullfinch²

First recorded in 1825–35; of uncertain origin

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bullfinch

Shortly after Repeal Julius Kessler returned to Manhattan with his bull terrier Roxy and his bullfinch Dickie, there passed his 80th birthday.

From Time Magazine Archive

The bullfinch, first on the program, was obviously stagestruck.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Half of 'em funked that bullfinch, and there's one fellow in the ditch——" She reeled in her saddle.

From Barnaby A Novel by R. Ramsay

A bullfinch can be apparently quite well one minute and the next you find him lying at the bottom of the cage.

From What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

A bullfinch came to the hawthorn hedge just above the hatch, looked in and out once or twice, and then stepped inside the spray near his nest.

From Bevis The Story of a Boy by Richard Jefferies

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