shrike

[shrahyk]

noun

1. any of numerous predaceous oscine birds of the family Laniidae, having a strong, hooked, and toothed bill, feeding on insects and sometimes on small birds and other animals: the members of certain species impale their prey on thorns or suspend it from the branches of trees to tear it apart more easily, and are said to kill more than is necessary for them to eat.

2. any of several other birds having similar bills, as the vanga shrikes.

3. Military.,  Shrike, a 10-foot (3-meter), 400-pound (180-kilogram) U.S. air-to-ground missile designed to destroy missile batteries by homing in on their radar emissions.

shrike

/ ʃraɪk /

noun

1. Also called: butcherbird. any songbird of the chiefly Old World family Laniidae, having a heavy hooked bill and feeding on smaller animals which they sometimes impale on thorns, barbed wire, etc See also bush shrike

2. any of various similar but unrelated birds, such as the cuckoo shrikes

3. another name for thickhead

Word History and Origins

Origin of shrike¹

First recorded in 1535–45; perhaps continuing Old English scrīc “thrush”; akin to Old Norse skrīkja “to twitter”; shriek

Word History and Origins

Origin of shrike¹

Old English scrīc thrush; related to Middle Dutch schrīk corncrake; see _screech ¹ , _shriek

Example Sentences

An estimated 25 bird species, including ladder-backed woodpeckers, loggerhead shrikes and western screech owls, nest in their trunks and branches.

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The fire also swept through parts of the island that have rare habitats for sensitive plant and animal species found nowhere else, such as the endangered San Clemente loggerhead shrike, a carnivorous songbird.

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One is the red-backed shrike, a common autumn migrant in Egypt that often roosts in acacia trees.

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One of the few natural predators of live lubbers is the shrike, a small bird that can decapitate the grasshoppers with its beak or impale them on thorns or barbed-wire fences.

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“Remember me, love, when I am reborn/As the shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn,” Hozier sings.

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