guillemot
Americannoun
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a black or brown-speckled seabird of the genus Cepphus, of northern seas, having a sharply pointed black bill, red legs, and white wing patches, as C. grylle black guillemot, of the North Atlantic Ocean and the similar C. columba pigeon guillemot of the North Pacific Ocean.
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British. a murre of the genus Uria.
noun
Etymology
Origin of guillemot
First recorded in 1670–80; from French, apparently diminutive of Guillaume “William”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There is good news for some of the seabirds that breed in the UK, with the shag moving from the red list to the amber and the black guillemot from the amber to the green.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
Other birds impacted by drones flying too close to the Oregon islands include the common murre, pigeon guillemot, tufted puffin and two types of cormorants.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2021
When the pressure ultimately becomes impossible to oppose, he relents, but at the last moment, decides to scale a cliff for a guillemot egg that he can sell to a collector.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2018
The extensive collections of early oologists, such as George Lupton, who amassed more than 1,000 guillemot eggs, fascinate Birkhead even as he laments this now illegal and inadmissible practice.
From Nature ● Apr. 12, 2016
An' 'twas good to climb in the craggy clifts Where the guillemot raired her brood, An' go with a laugh in the heart all day; Sure 'nuff, 'twas good!
From Cornish Catches and Other Verses by Moore, Bernard
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.
