lapwing

[ lap-wing ]

/ ˈlæpˌwɪŋ /

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noun

a large Old World plover, Vanellus vanellus, having a long, slender, upcurved crest, an erratic, flapping flight, and a shrill cry.

any of several similar, related plovers.

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Origin of lapwing

before 1050; Middle English, variant (by association with wing) of lapwinke,Old English hlēapwince plover. See leap, wink¹

Words nearby lapwing

laptop, laptray, La Puente, lap up, Laputa, lapwing, laqueus, lar, Lara, Laramie, Laramie Range

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use lapwing in a sentence

And cf. 'to seem the lapwing and to jest, Tongue far from heart'; Meas.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems|Geoffrey Chaucer
A low call came from a brooding curlew, a faint sigh from a plover, and the wild rasping cry of a lapwing greeted them overhead.
The Underworld|James C. Welsh
And here is a moorcock's; and this—I should know it among a thousand—it's a lapwing's.
Emily Bront|A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson
I made him promise he'd never shoot a lapwing after that, and he didn't.
Emily Bront|A. Mary F. (Agnes Mary Frances) Robinson

It was sometimes represented as a crane, at others as a lapwing.
Scarabs|Isaac Myer

British Dictionary definitions for lapwing

lapwing

/ (ˈlæpˌwɪŋ) /

noun

any of several plovers of the genus Vanellus, esp V. vanellus, typically having a crested head, wattles, and spursAlso called: green plover, pewit, peewit

Word Origin for lapwing

C17: altered form of Old English hlēapewince plover, from hlēapan to leap + wincian to jerk, wink 1

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