kookaburra
Americannoun
noun
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Also called: laughing jackass. a large arboreal Australian kingfisher, Dacelo novaeguineae (or gigas ), with a cackling cry
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Also called: blue-winged kookaburra. a related smaller bird D. Leachii , of tropical Australia and New Guinea
Etymology
Origin of kookaburra
First recorded in 1885–90, kookaburra is from the Wiradjuri word gugubarra (imitative)
Vocabulary lists containing kookaburra
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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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.
Australians are well accustomed to swooping birds - there's plovers, noisy miners and even the kookaburra.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2023
In a country featuring some unique native fauna, the animal emblems of New South Wales are the platypus and kookaburra.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
“The laughing kookaburra is another standard example,” Jody wrote.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2019
We watched in beautiful clarity as a fox, and then a goshawk, and then a kookaburra fed on the slowly deflating body of the kangaroo.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 25, 2018
And very well our kookaburra knows the fact.
From Peeps At Many Lands: Australia by Percy F. S. (Percy Frederick Seaton) Spence
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.
