ossifrage

American

[os-uh-frij] / ˈɒs ə frɪdʒ /

noun

the lammergeier.
Archaic. the osprey.

ossifrage British

/ -ˌfreɪdʒ, ˈɒsɪfrɪdʒ /

noun

an archaic name for lammergeier osprey

"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

Etymology

Origin of ossifrage

1595–1605; < Latin ossifraga sea eagle, literally, bone-breaker (noun use of feminine of ossifragus bone-breaking), equivalent to ossi- (combining form of os ) bone + frag-, variant stem of frangere to break + -a nominative singular feminine noun and adj. ending

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.

First, saved from waters of old Nile, among bulrushes, a bed of fasciated wattles: at last the cavity of a mountain, an occulted sepulchre amid the conclamation of the hillcat and the ossifrage.

From Ulysses by Joyce, James

Pliny, the extremity of the intestine of the ossifrage, if worn as an amulet, is well known to be an excellent remedy for colic.

From Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing by Cutten, George Barton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023