chough
Americannoun
noun
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a large black passerine bird, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, of parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a long downward-curving red bill: family Corvidae (crows)
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a smaller related bird, Pyrrhocorax graculus, with a shorter yellow bill
Etymology
Origin of chough
1275–1325; Middle English choghe; akin to Old English cēo, Dutch kauw, Danish kaa
Vocabulary lists containing chough
"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 3
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Take an Australian bird called the white-winged chough.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
She found it easier this time, and there was the chough, with her in her own world, perching on a branch that hung low over the pavement.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
The chough, which, in addition to plumage dark and glossy like that of the jackdaw, displays a beak and legs of bright scarlet.
From The South Isles of Aran by Burke, Oliver J.
In the following exceptions, however, gh is pronounced as f: cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough.
From The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference by Triemens, Joseph
And my wife will be jocund, feat, compt, neat, quaint, dainty, trim, tricked up, brisk, smirk, and smug, even as a pretty little Cornish chough.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 by Motteux, Peter Anthony
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
