Classical Mythology. a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaia and mother of Leto, later identified with Artemis and with the Roman goddess Diana.
Astronomy. one of the moons of Saturn.
Literary. the moon personified.
a female given name.
classical myth a Titaness, who later became identified with Artemis (Diana) as goddess of the moon
poetic a personification of the moon
1690–1700, imitative; spelling by influence of Phoebe
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English Phebe, Phebee, from Latin Phoebē, from Greek Phoíbē, feminine of phoîbos “shining, radiant, bright”; see Phoebus ( def. )
Phoebes are small songbirds that belong to the tyrant flycatcher family. They are found in North America, and most phoebes have grayish-brown feathers and short, pointed bills they use to catch insects. Birds in the tyrant flycatcher family are so called because they are surprisingly territorial for such small birds. Phoebes boldly defend their hunting perches and nesting sites, chasing away intruders, calling loudly and repeatedly to warn rivals, and dive-bombing predators. Phoebes perch on fence posts, branches, or ledges, wagging their tails and watching for flying insects to eat. They make short, darting flights to catch them. Their name comes from their raspy, two-note call, which sounds like "fee-bee," and was originally spelled phebe.
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They also recognized acorn woodpeckers, a California towhee, dozens of turkey vultures circling overhead, a dark-eyed junco, a mockingbird, an Anna’s hummingbird and a black phoebe.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 11, 2023
One day last spring when I went to check on her, I found three raw and naked eastern phoebe nestlings tossed onto the porch floor.
From New York Times • Jun. 2, 2023
It was, she explained from behind a pair of binoculars, her first sighting of a bird called a black phoebe, which normally ranges no closer to Puget Sound than Southern Oregon.
From Washington Times • Apr. 2, 2017
In 2011 the Fish and Wildlife Service convinced the Justice Department to file criminal indictments against three oil companies working in North Dakota’s Bakken field for inadvertently killing six ducks and one phoebe.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2016
The phoebe clicks out his alarm cry and I tense.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
