roadrunner
Americannoun
noun
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Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of roadrunner
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Explanation
With its long tail, distinctive crest, and fierce eyes, the fast-running bird called a roadrunner resembles a mini meat-eating dinosaur as it races along the ground to catch its prey. Found in the deserts of the American Southwest and Mexico, the roadrunner is often featured in Native American folklore. It was even a character in a long-running cartoon, where it was shown ever-outsmarting — and outrunning — a coyote in hot pursuit. A roadrunner can’t really outrun a coyote, but it can dart across the desert floor at up to 20 miles per hour! While it can fly, it spends most of its time on the ground, where it chases down insects, lizards, and even small rattlesnakes.
Vocabulary lists containing roadrunner
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.
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“Tonight, I feel a little like the coyote with no more roadrunner to chase.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
After that, we visited the newly installed Ricardo Breceda rattlesnake and roadrunner metal sculptures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
Then Jones fled the stage, leaving in his wake a few exhalations that lingered like dust clouds from a cartoon roadrunner: “I am so sorry — I cannot do this. Thank you so much.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
The greater roadrunner, a species native to Southwestern states, hitched a ride in the storage area of a moving van from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2021
Byrd shakes her head, not like she’s doubting Axel’s knowledge of roadrunner facts, like she’s shaking the last images of the garter snake from her mind.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
The cultural shift began years ago in Phoenix, and many residents now take pride in their saguaros and palo verde trees, and post snapshots of bobcats and roadrunners in their yards.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 20, 2023
Lizards and roadrunners skitter across the museum floor.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
We lived on forty acres instead of four hundred square feet, cohabitated with roadrunners and rabbits instead of roaches and rats.
From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2019
Cactus wrens, curve-billed thrashers, black phoebes, Lucifer hummingbirds and greater roadrunners are among the year-round avian inhabitants.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2016
I guess the coldest night was the one we spent in an old rundown schoolhouse, after chasing the skunks and roadrunners out.
From The Life of Me; an autobiography by Johnson, Clarence Edgar
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.
