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plover

[pluhv-er, ploh-ver]
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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.
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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

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

Examples from the Web for plover

Historical Examples

  • 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
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Word Origin

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.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper