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throstle

[thros-uh l]
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noun
  1. British (chiefly Literary ). the song thrush.
  2. Obsolete. a machine for spinning wool, cotton, etc., in which the twisting and winding are simultaneous and continuous.
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Origin of throstle

before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch drossel, German Drossel; akin to Old Norse thrǫstr, Latin turdus thrush
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for throstle

Historical Examples

  • Yellow hair at her, and eyes like the sea, and a voice same as the throstle!

    Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon

    Hall Caine

  • Barbara was nineteen, and she had a voice which for gaiety and sweetness was like that of a throstle.

    Cruel Barbara Allen

    David Christie Murray

  • Throstle and skylark to be admired must be heard at a distance.

  • You'll niver hear a throstle i' front o' a robin, nor a robin i' front o' a blackbird.

  • I wonder if even a throstle would not get out of tune were it sentenced to life-long captivity?

    Mavis of Green Hill

    Faith Baldwin

British Dictionary definitions for throstle

throstle

noun
  1. a poetic name for the thrush, esp the song thrush
  2. a spinning machine for wool or cotton in which the fibres are twisted and wound continuously
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Word Origin

Old English; related to Old Saxon throsla, Old Norse thröstr, Middle High German drostel
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 throstle

n.

"thrush," Old English þrostle, from Proto-Germanic *thrustalo (cf. Old Saxon throsla, Old High German droscala, German Drossel "thrush"), altered from (perhaps a diminutive of) *thurstaz (see thrush (n.1)), though OED considers this a distinct word from the same PIE root.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper