killdeer

[kil-deer]

noun

an American plover, Charadrius vociferus, having two black bands around the upper breast.

Origin of killdeer

An Americanism dating back to 1725–35; imitative

Also called killdeer plover.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for killdeer

Historical Examples of killdeer

What impressed me was that I had never seen a killdeer act in this way before.
In Pastures Green
Peter McArthur
Autumn came and went, and with it the killdeer and their young.
Birds and All Nature, Vol. VI, No. 3, October 1899
Various
Of these the killdeer plover is the most common and the best known.
Game Birds and Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast
Harry Thom Payne
The Killdeer is so called on account of the cry which it utters; it resembles "kill-dee, kill-dee."
Endurance Test
Alan Douglas
He tore away the ribbon, and knotted it to the stock of Killdeer, which had been the gift of the girl herself.
The Deerslayer
James Fenimore Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for killdeer

killdeer

noun plural -deer or -deers

a large brown-and-white North American plover, Charadrius vociferus, with two black breast bands and a noisy cry

Word Origin for killdeer

C18: of imitative origin

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

Word Origin and History for killdeer

also killdee, 1731, American English, species of North American ring-plover, the name imitative of its cry.