Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

chiffchaff

[chif-chaf, -chahf]
noun
  1. a common, greenish Old World warbler, Phylloscopus collybita.
Show More

Origin of chiffchaff

First recorded in 1770–80; gradational compound; imitative
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for chiffchaff

Historical Examples

  • Lastly, we have the Chiffchaff, certainly the rarest and most local of all.

    Among the Birds in Northern Shires

    Charles Dixon

  • The chiffchaff uttered his clear yet rather sad notes on April 26.

    Field and Hedgerow

    Richard Jefferies

  • This name, however, is probably equally applicable to the Chiffchaff.

  • Chiffchaff and willow-wren came as usual, but they did not arrive in a crowd at once.

    Nature Near London

    Richard Jefferies

  • Only a very few days since—it does not seem a week—there was a chiffchaff calling in a copse as merrily as in the spring.

    Nature Near London

    Richard Jefferies

British Dictionary definitions for chiffchaff

chiffchaff

noun
  1. a common European warbler, Phylloscopus collybita, with a yellowish-brown plumage
Show More

Word Origin

C18: imitative of its 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