turnstone
Americannoun
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any shorebird of the genus Arenaria, characterized by the habit of turning over stones in search of food.
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British. ruddy turnstone.
noun
Etymology
Origin of turnstone
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.
Four UK shorebirds - the grey plover, dunlin, turnstone and curlew sandpiper - are becoming more endangered on the red list.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2024
And a bird I want to add as a caveat: the ruddy turnstone.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 5, 2020
The ruddy turnstone and bristle-thighed curlew fly more than 2,000 miles nonstop from Alaska to the Hawaiian islands on their way to the South Pacific.
From Time Magazine Archive
The plover of the plain is the turnstone, strepsilus interpres.
From Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
The turnstone, when surrounded by comrades belonging to more energetic species, is a rather timorous bird; but it undertakes to keep watch for the security of the commonwealth when surrounded by smaller birds.
From Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
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.
