catbird
any of several American or Australian birds having catlike cries, especially Dumetella carolinensis(gray catbird ), of North America.
Origin of catbird
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use catbird in a sentence
I hurried downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him, still crying in a way I had never heard before.
A Bird-Lover in the West | Olive Thorne MillerThe catbirds build more loosely, weaving strips of cedar bark into a rough basket.
Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road | Katharine Lee BatesCatbirds and robins are among the most abundant breeders, while chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches are less often seen.
The Log of the Sun | William BeebeHe was put in with some other young birds,—meadowlarks and catbirds.
The Children's Book of Birds | Olive Thorne Miller"No publicity" is the watchword of the young catbirds as well as of the old.
Under the Maples | John Burroughs
British Dictionary definitions for catbird
/ (ˈkætˌbɜːd) /
any of several North American songbirds of the family Mimidae (mockingbirds), esp Dumetella carolinensis, whose call resembles the mewing of a cat
any of several Australian bowerbirds of the genera Ailuroedus and Scenopoeetes, having a catlike call
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
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