turtledove
Americannoun
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any of several small to medium-sized Old World doves of the genus Streptopelia, especially S. turtur, of Europe, having a long, graduated tail: noted for its soft, cooing call.
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a sweetheart or beloved mate.
noun
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any of several Old World doves of the genus Streptopelia , having a brown plumage with speckled wings and a long dark tail
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a gentle or loving person
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of turtledove
1250–1300; Middle English turtildove, equivalent to turtil turtle 2 + dove dove 1
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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.
See Examples For:
Kevin later gifts his new friend a turtledove ornament after learning the animals represent friendship and love.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Evelyn Lear, most noted for her flamboyant version of Berg's violently atonal Lulu, becomes a demure turtledove in Schumann's Fair Little Flower.
From Time Magazine Archive
Reserved and unassuming, he is a rare bird in a land famed for flamboyant politicians, was once described by an African magazine as a "turtledove among falcons."
From Time Magazine Archive
But he acts like a sucking turtledove When I go into his stall.
From Time Magazine Archive
“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” he read.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Rising feed costs have jacked up the average price of a pair of turtledoves by $33.3% to $600.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
Just like the way she is using tinsel and turtledoves.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
Endangered turtledoves have appeared, as have rare bats and owls, beetles and moths.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019
Who needs two turtledoves or a partridge in a pear tree when there are so many species under the sea, including the seasonally appropriate angelfish?
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 16, 2018
Laurie had christened it, saying it was highly appropriate to the gentle lovers who ‘went on together like a pair of turtledoves, with first a bill and then a coo’.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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.
