pewee

[pee-wee]

noun

any of several New World flycatchers of the genus Contopus.Compare wood pewee.

the phoebe.

Origin of pewee

An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800; imitative

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pewee

Historical Examples of pewee

There may have been more, although I saw but one and heard but one baby cry, a prolonged but very low sound of pewee quality.
Little Brothers of the Air
Olive Thorne Miller
Jack and Bob had to amuse Columbus with stories, to divert his mind from the notion that Pewee and his party meant them some harm.
The Hoosier School-boy
Edward Eggleston
A multitude of gnats circling about in the air, seemed to be precisely to the taste of the pewee parents and their hungry bairns.
Our Bird Comrades
Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser
“Pewee and his crowd have gone up to the Indian Mound,” said Columbus.
The Hoosier School-boy
Edward Eggleston
Jack knew that the truce with so vain a fellow as Pewee could not last long, but it served its purpose for the time.
The Hoosier School-boy
Edward Eggleston

British Dictionary definitions for pewee

pewee

peewee

noun

any of several small North American flycatchers of the genus Contopus, having a greenish-brown plumage

Word Origin for pewee

C19: imitative of its cry

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 pewee

"flycatcher, lapwing," 1810, variant of pewit (q.v.). See also peewee.