corn crake

noun

a short-billed Eurasian rail, Crex crex, frequenting grainfields.

Origin of corn crake

First recorded in 1545–55

Also called land rail.

Words Nearby corn crake

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use corn crake in a sentence

Then a nightingale began to give forth its long liquid gurgling; and a corn-crake churred in the young wheat.
The Dark Flower | John Galsworthy
This and the corn crake are the only two marsh birds that should properly be reckoned among house-birds.
The Natural History of Cage Birds | J. M. Bechstein
She's quiet for five minutes then bursts out into song again like a chirruping cricket or a croaking corn-crake.
A Popular Schoolgirl | Angela Brazil
From a distant field came the dim wheezing of a corn-crake; nearer at hand a nightingale was beginning his epithalamic welcome.
The Gay Adventure | Richard Bird
And all of a sudden the solitary corn-crake cries from the wheat.
Birds of the wave and woodland | Phil (Philip Stewart) Robinson

British Dictionary definitions for corncrake

corncrake

/ (ˈkɔːnˌkreɪk) /

noun

a common Eurasian rail, Crex crex, of fields and meadows, with a buff speckled plumage and reddish wings

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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