gray duck

American  

noun

1. any of several ducks in which certain immature or female plumages are predominantly gray, as the gadwall and the pintail.

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Etymology

Origin of gray duck

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gray duck

"Well, take firm hold of the middle of the twig; we are ready to start," said the gray duck.

From Fifty Famous Fables by McMurry, Lida B. (Lida Brown)

And a moment later, looking very much like the old woman who went to market, with a dead gray duck dangling from her right arm, Marian returned in triumph.

From The Blue Envelope by Snell, Roy J. (Roy Judson)

Against them lay a gray duck, with snowy breast; then, deer-meat, and various kinds of fishes.

From Life at Puget Sound: With Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California by Leighton, Caroline C.

"Take me with you, please," called a tortoise to a gray duck and a white duck that were flying over.

From Fifty Famous Fables by McMurry, Lida B. (Lida Brown)

Venison knocked over a gray duck on the lake with his rifle, and it was not long before we had four feet of pickerel and that self-same duck sprawled out on the hot stone, frying.

From The Puddleford Papers, Or Humors of the West by Riley, H. H.