plover

[pluhv-er, ploh-ver]

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noun

any of various shorebirds of the family Charadriidae.Compare dotterel(def 1), killdeer, lapwing.

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. 2019

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 accomplisht cook
Robert May
The engineer, followed by Plover and Warren, went down to his post.
The English at the North Pole
Jules Verne
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

any shore bird of the family Charadriidae, typically having a round head, straight bill, and large pointed wings: order Charadriiformes

any of similar and related birds, such as the Egyptian plover and the upland ploverSee crocodile bird

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

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.