stork

[stawrk]

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.

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

Contemporary Examples of 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
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
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
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

Historical Examples of stork

The stork is a bird of prey; it is vigilant, greedy, and catches gudgeons.
The Room in the Dragon Volant
J. Sheridan LeFanu
So they looked about and found a duck, and introduced it to the stork.
The Golden Age
Kenneth Grahame
The duck was a drake, but the stork didn't mind, and they loved each other and were as jolly as could be.
The Golden Age
Kenneth Grahame
"A stork, he thinks," she said, as though that were answer enough.
The Sea-Hawk
Raphael Sabatini
Then Jove sent a Stork, and said he thought this would suit them.
Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17)
Various

British Dictionary definitions for stork

stork

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

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.