Dictionary.com
definitions

plover

[pluhv-er, ploh-ver]
See more synonyms for plover on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any of various shorebirds of the family Charadriidae.Compare dotterel(def 1), killdeer, lapwing.
  2. any of various similar shorebirds, as the upland plover and other sandpipers.

Origin of plover

1275–1325; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French plovier rainbird < Vulgar Latin *pluviārius. See pluvial, -er2
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for plover

plover, farrier, smithy, anvil, grouse, quail, curlew, partridge, pheasant, sandpiper, snipe, wildfowl, woodcock, shoer

Examples from the Web for plover

Historical Examples of plover

  • The plover, as his cry indicates, is a very melancholy bird.

    Tales From Two Hemispheres

    Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

  • Raise his legs, wings and his shoulders as a plover, and no sauce but salt.

  • The engineer, followed by Plover and Warren, went down to his post.

  • Now and again the peep of the prairie chick or the call of the plover came to their ears.

    Hawk Eye

    David Cory

  • "Nothing unusual," replied the colonel, shelling a plover's egg.

    Jack O' Judgment

    Edgar Wallace

British Dictionary definitions for plover

plover

noun
  1. any shore bird of the family Charadriidae, typically having a round head, straight bill, and large pointed wings: order Charadriiformes
  2. any of similar and related birds, such as the Egyptian plover and the upland ploverSee crocodile bird
  3. green plover another name for lapwing

Word Origin for plover

C14: from Old French plovier rainbird, from Latin pluvia rain
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 plover
n.

c.1300, from Anglo-French plover, Old French pluvier, earlier plovier (c.1200), from Vulgar Latin *plovarius, literally "belonging to rain," from Latin pluvia "rain (water)" from pluere "to rain," from PIE root *pleu- "to flow" (see pluvial). Perhaps so called because the birds' migration arrival coincides with the start of the rainy season, or from its supposed restlessness when rain approaches.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper