stork

[ stawrk ]

/ stɔrk /

noun, plural storks, (especially collectively) stork.

any of several wading birds of the family Ciconiidae, having long legs and a long neck and bill.Compare adjutant stork, jabiru, marabou(def 1), white stork, wood ibis.

the stork, this bird as the mythical or symbolic deliverer of a new baby: My brother and his wife are expecting the stork in July.

Nearby words

storey house, storeyed, storiated, storied, storiform, stork, stork parking, stork's-bill, storksbill, storm, storm and stress

Origin of stork

before 900; Middle English; Old English storc; cognate with German Storch, Old Norse storkr; akin to stark

Related formsstork·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for stork

So different were they that Lucy Fisher, another friend, used to tease that "Doug had been brought by the stork."
Doug Kenney: The Odd Comic Genius Behind ‘Animal House’ and National Lampoon|Robert Sam Anson|March 1, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He looks like a stork that dropped a baby and broke it and is coming to explain to the parents.
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview|Alex Belth|February 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
We just sing beautiful music, hold hands and voilà, a stork brings the baby from heaven.
Judith Regan: Todd Akin and Republican Men’s World of Unicorns, True Love—and No Rape|Judith Regan|August 22, 2012|DAILY BEAST
I always believed someone was going to leave a baby on my doorstep—like the stork.
My Husband's Recovery—and Mine|Sandra McElwaine|April 21, 2009|DAILY BEAST

A stork was just then standing near his nest on the house roof.
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales|Hans Christian Andersen
"I'll do just the way the stork did," she thought, gleefully.
The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor|Annie Fellows Johnston
One after another they came bobbing up, and one after another the stork ate them.
Stories to Tell Children|Sara Cone Bryant
As the Caliph spoke he saw the second stork circling round his head and gradually flying towards the earth.
The Green Fairy Book|Various
A large child in swaddling-clothes, carried by a stork, was carved in oak, and occurred in various parts of the building.
Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the years 1826, 1827, 1828 and 1829.|Hermann Pckler-Muskau

British Dictionary definitions for stork

stork

/ (stɔːk) /

noun

any large wading bird of the family Ciconiidae, chiefly of warm regions of the Old World, having very long legs and a long stout pointed bill, and typically having a white-and-black plumage: order Ciconiiformes

(sometimes capital) a variety of domestic fancy pigeon resembling the fairy swallow

Word Origin for stork

Old English storc; related to Old High German storah, Old Norse storkr, Old English stearc stiff; from the stiff appearance of its legs; see stark

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 stork

stork

Old English storc, related to stear "stiff, strong" (see stark), from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz (cf. Old Norse storkr, Middle Dutch storc, Old High German storah, German Storch "stork"). Perhaps so called with reference to the bird's stiff or rigid posture. But some connect the word to Greek torgos "vulture."

Old Church Slavonic struku, Russian sterch, Lithuanian starkus, Magyar eszterag, Albanian sterkjok "stork" are Germanic loan-words. The fable that babies are brought by storks is from German and Dutch nursery stories, no doubt from the notion that storks nesting on one's roof meant good luck, often in the form of family happiness.