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.
Both species make tools for foraging—the crow makes 15 separate ones—but chimps also use tools to scratch or clean their bodies and to threaten others.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
A frozen crow was encased in the snow.
From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026
When a crow sometimes consciously detects a stimulus and sometimes does not, specific nerve cells respond in line with that internal experience.
From Science Daily • Dec. 15, 2025
Orkney is not the first place in Scotland, or the UK, to report problems with young ravens, which are the largest birds in the crow family in this country.
From BBC • May 27, 2025
It was a large cage—perhaps four feet high—and inside was a strange-looking bird: black, as big as a small crow, but with stripes of color on its side.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
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.
