whinchat

[ hwin-chat, win- ]

/ ˈʰwɪnˌtʃæt, ˈwɪn- /

noun

a small Old World thrush, Saxicola rubetra, having a buff-colored breast and white streaks in the tail.

Nearby words

whimsey, whimsical, whimsicality, whimsy, whin, whinchat, whine, whing-ding, whinge, whinny, whinstone

Origin of whinchat

First recorded in 1670–80; whin + chat

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

Examples from the Web for whinchat

The redstart and nightingale are most subject to this; it sometimes also happens to the fauvette, and also to the whinchat.
The Natural History of Cage Birds|J. M. Bechstein
The same is true of the Whinchat, and one would scarcely expect to find this bird attacking Buntings as it sometimes does.
Territory in Bird Life|H. Eliot Howard
It is difficult to put oneself in the place of the Stonechat or of the Whinchat.
Territory in Bird Life|H. Eliot Howard
Mr Harvie Brown saw it at Aultbea in 1884, more abundantly than the whinchat.
Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire|John H. Dixon, F.S.A. Scot

It is not so tender as the whinchat, some few of them occasionally stopping in this country all the winter.
The Natural History of Cage Birds|J. M. Bechstein

British Dictionary definitions for whinchat

whinchat

/ (ˈwɪnˌtʃæt) /

noun

an Old World songbird, Saxicola rubetra, having a mottled brown-and-white plumage with pale cream underparts: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)

Word Origin for whinchat

C17: from whin 1 + chat 1

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