chough

American  

[chuhf] / tʃʌf /

noun

1. any of several crowlike Old World birds, especially Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, of Europe.

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chough British  

/ tʃʌf /

noun

1. a large black passerine bird, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, of parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a long downward-curving red bill: family Corvidae (crows)

2. a smaller related bird, Pyrrhocorax graculus, with a shorter yellow bill

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Etymology

Origin of chough

1275–1325; Middle English choghe; akin to Old English cēo, Dutch kauw, Danish kaa

Example Sentences

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

In the following exceptions, however, gh are pronounced as f:—cough, chough, clough, enough, laugh, rough, slough, tough, trough.

From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous

Drury revives! her rounded pate Is blue, is heavenly blue with slate; She "wings the midway air," elate,     As magpie, crow, or chough; White paint her modish visage smears, Yellow and pointed are her ears.

From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by Parton, James

According to them he alone is responsible for the disappearance of his distinguished relation, the chough.

From Birds in Town and Village by Hudson, W. H. (William Henry)

Jacky was a Cornish chough, coal-black in plumage, with brilliant orange-tinted beak.

From The Tree of Knowledge A Novel by Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie