warbler

[wawr-bler]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR warbler ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

any of several small, chiefly Old World songbirds of the subfamily Sylviidae.Compare blackcap(def 1), reed warbler.

Also called wood warbler. any of numerous small New World songbirds of the family Parulidae, many species of which are brightly colored.Compare yellow warbler.

a person or thing that warbles.

Origin of warbler

First recorded in 1605–15; warble¹ + -er¹

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

Related Words for warbler

artist, musician, voice, diva, soloist, crooner, vocalist, troubadour, songbird, songster, minstrel, artiste, chorister, accompanist, chanter, nightingale, chanteuse, intoner, melodist, serenader

Examples from the Web for warbler

Contemporary Examples of warbler

She must have told her that dozens of species of warbler—all little and bright, with voices like flutes—came north every spring.
One Year to Live
Olivia Gentile
April 12, 2009

Historical Examples of warbler

"Perhaps it was a warbler or a thrush," I thought, and walked on.
From Pole to Pole
Sven Anders Hedin
Wilson's Warbler is a common spring and probably fall migrant in Coahuila.
Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
Emil K. Urban
Audubon's Warbler is a common winter visitant and migrant in Coahuila.
Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
Emil K. Urban
One of the most delightful of these hermits is the Kentucky warbler.
Our Bird Comrades
Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser
What an enigma the Tennessee warbler for a long time remained to me!
Our Bird Comrades
Leander S. (Leander Sylvester) Keyser

British Dictionary definitions for warbler

warbler

noun

a person or thing that warbles

any small active passerine songbird of the Old World subfamily Sylviinae: family Muscicapidae. They have a cryptic plumage and slender bill and are arboreal insectivores

Also called: wood warbler any small bird of the American family Parulidae, similar to the Old World forms but often brightly coloured

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 warbler

agent noun from warble (v.). Applied to Old World songbirds by 1773 and to North American birds that look like them but sing little by 1783.