whinchat

[hwin-chat, win-]

noun

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

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

Historical Examples of whinchat

It is difficult to put oneself in the place of the Stonechat or of the Whinchat.
Territory in Bird Life
H. Eliot Howard
The furze-chat, mentioned by C. Brown, is the Saxicola rubetra, commonly also called the whinchat.
Notes and Queries, Number 243, June 24, 1854
Various
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
The Whinchat may be distinguished at a considerable distance by the white streak over the eye.
British Birds in their Haunts
Rev. C. A. Johns
Some greenfinches, a whinchat or two, almost no pipits or larks, and very few sparrows.
The Naturalist on the Thames
C. J. Cornish

British Dictionary definitions for whinchat

whinchat

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