any of several large oscine birds of the genus Corvus, of the family Corvidae, having a long, stout bill, lustrous black plumage, and a wedge-shaped tail, as the common C. brachyrhynchos, of North America.
any of several other birds of the family Corvidae.
any of various similar birds of other families.
Astronomy. Crow, the constellation Corvus.
have a crow to pick / pluck with someone, to have a reason to disagree or argue with someone.
eat crow, to be forced to admit to having made a mistake, as by retracting an emphatic statement; suffer humiliation.
His prediction was completely wrong, and he had to eat crow.
as the crow flies, in a straight line; by the most direct route.
The next town is thirty miles from here, as the crow flies.
the characteristic cry of a rooster.
an inarticulate cry of pleasure.
a member of a Siouan people of eastern Montana.
a Siouan language closely related to Hidatsa.
any large gregarious songbird of the genus Corvus, esp C. corone (the carrion crow) of Europe and Asia: family Corvidae . Other species are the raven, rook, and jackdaw and all have a heavy bill, glossy black plumage, and rounded wings See also carrion crow
any of various other corvine birds, such as the jay, magpie, and nutcracker
any of various similar birds of other families
offensive an old or ugly woman
short for crowbar
as directly as possible
informal to be forced to do something humiliating
(past tense crowed or crew) to utter a shrill squawking sound, as a cock
(often foll by over) to boast one's superiority
(esp of babies) to utter cries of pleasure
a member of a Native American people living in E Montana
the language of this people, belonging to the Siouan family
First recorded before 900; Middle English crowe, Old English crāwe, crāwa; cognate with Old High German krāwa; akin to Dutch kraai, German Krähe
First recorded before 1000; Middle English crouen, crowen, Old English crāwan; cognate with Dutch kraaien, German krähen; see crow 1
1795–1805; translation of North American French ( gens des ) Corbeaux Raven (people), literal translation of Crow apsá˙loke a Crow Indian
A crow is a large, intelligent, black bird with a loud call. Farmers and gardeners set up "scarecrows" to keep crows away from their seeds and crops. A crow is glossy and dark, a close relation of the raven, and a large group of crows is known as a murder. When a crow caws, you can also say it crows — and another way to crow is to call out with satisfaction about something: "I'm so proud of the award I just want to crow about it all day long!" The Old English root of crow is crawe, which imitates the sound a crow makes.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That’s 28 miles as the crow flies, but our route, with a detour for lunch in Cuyama, swelled the journey to more than 100 miles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Perhaps the same will be true with “Obsession”; Curry Barker’s copycats will try and fail to interpret the trials of dating when personality is a facade, and I’ll be left eating crow.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Most microraptors were quite small, with some species reaching only about the size of a crow.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
A frozen crow was encased in the snow.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
I was now on a level with the crow colony, and could see into their nests.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Taylor Crow who works in sales says she's "fairly good" at networking as it was something she prioritised at university.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Artists including actor Matt Damon, songwriter Maggie Rogers and singer Sheryl Crow weighed in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
She hit the comedy festival scene in 2024 as a standout comic at the Bergamot Comedy Fest at the Crow, which is known for discovering up-and-coming talent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Mary Porter is worried by the Supreme Court's ruling and says "we don't want those kind of laws, Jim Crow laws, to come back"
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Chapter 6 reflects on what acknowledging the presence of the New Jim Crow means for the future of civil rights advocacy.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Scavenger animals such as possums, red foxes and crows can be exposed to the virus while devouring the carcasses of infected birds.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
“Welcome to Fobes Ranch… a truly extraordinary piece of California mountain history,” the listing crows.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
When the fighting nears, the crows chivy them to different hiding places.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
A little later, he upped his game considerably with “The Wailing,” which adds ghosts, demons, dead crows and an extremely literal title.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
As I looked around, a cloud of crows flew over me, straight for the woods in back of the barn, cawing their heads off.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
The first departed Frankfurt on May 3, carrying 61 crew members and only 36 passengers, half its capacity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A rotting carpet of familiar fan-shaped leaves soon surrounded the tree, a sight so alarming Jung and her neighbours formed a crew of amateur detectives to solve the mystery: what was ailing their hardy ginkgo?
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
NBC4 anchor Colleen Williams told viewers the station had lost contact with its chopper crew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Danish Defence Minister Jeppe Bruus told Reuters no attempt to make contact with helicopters had been made by the frigate's crew.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Not only to me but to all the Phillips workers, Mr. Moorman acted more as a kindly older brother than a crew boss.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
“Sculptural, light-filled, and profoundly livable, this architectural gem stands as a testament to Brouse’s signature vision a residence that celebrates artistry, space, and the boundless beauty of the hills that surround it,” it crowed.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
The fifth banned person is Imran Ahmed, whose Center for Countering Digital Hate has crowed about its role in passing the Online Safety Act and has advised the U.K.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
"So much for being isolated," crowed the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets earlier this week.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2025
Colbert crowed in a subsequent “Late Show” monologue, which happened to land the week before the 2024 Emmys telecast.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2025
Snuffy Ledoux crowed and clucked and cheeped; Amarante Cordova brayed like a mule.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
But the deal he’s now crowing about ensures only that the U.S and Iran will talk about new nuclear limits.
From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2026
It was first to publicly announce an end to the exchange with Israel and avoided crowing about the downing of the Apache as it had when other American aircraft were shot down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Gen. Pam Bondi tried to deflect questions about her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein records by crowing about it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
While crowing about its Pentagon projects, IonQ hasn’t highlighted that the majority of them weren’t funded in the last two federal budgets, Wolfpack says.
From Barron's ● Feb. 4, 2026
That morning, he learned that roosters really don’t start crowing at dawn.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
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.
