plover
Americannoun
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any of various shorebirds of the family Charadriidae.
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any of various similar shorebirds, as the upland plover and other sandpipers.
noun
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any shore bird of the family Charadriidae, typically having a round head, straight bill, and large pointed wings: order Charadriiformes
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any of similar and related birds, such as the Egyptian plover and the upland plover See crocodile bird
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another name for lapwing
Etymology
Origin of plover
1275–1325; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French plovier rainbird < Vulgar Latin *pluviārius. See pluvial, -er 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s not too late to save the whooping crane, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the piping plover or any of the other 86 birds on the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
Four UK shorebirds - the grey plover, dunlin, turnstone and curlew sandpiper - are becoming more endangered on the red list.
From BBC • Oct. 28, 2024
An unoiled, but injured, snowy plover that was captured also died.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2024
This guy birds solely by ear, this guy in the Rockaways who took it upon himself just as a volunteer to save the piping plover out in the Rockaways.
From Salon • Jul. 19, 2023
If a gust of wind swept the waste, I looked up, fearing it was the rush of a bull; if a plover whistled, I imagined it a man.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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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.