| Library / English Dictionary |
PIGEON
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Wild and domesticated birds having a heavy body and short legs
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("pigeon" is a kind of...):
columbiform bird (a cosmopolitan order of land birds having small heads and short legs with four unwebbed toes)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pigeon"):
pouter; pouter pigeon (one of a breed of pigeon that enlarge their crop until their breast is puffed out)
dove (any of numerous small pigeons)
Columba livia; rock dove; rock pigeon (pale grey Eurasian pigeon having black-striped wings from which most domestic species are descended)
band-tail pigeon; band-tailed pigeon; bandtail; Columba fasciata (wild pigeon of western North America; often mistaken for the now extinct passenger pigeon)
Columba palumbus; cushat; ringdove; wood pigeon (Eurasian pigeon with white patches on wings and neck)
domestic pigeon (domesticated pigeon raised for sport or food)
squab (an unfledged pigeon)
Ectopistes migratorius; passenger pigeon (gregarious North American migratory pigeon now extinct)
Holonyms ("pigeon" is a member of...):
Columbidae; family Columbidae (doves and pigeons)
Context examples:
John no one thwarted, much less punished; though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory: he called his mother old girl, too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not unfrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still her own darling.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Chattering jays and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
However, she was not dead, but had only fallen into a deep sleep; and the king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court, fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in the court, the pigeons on the house-top, and the very flies slept upon the walls.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
The gentle rustle of the branches and the distant cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in upon the silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry call upon a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the court lay the dogs asleep; and the horses were standing in the stables; and on the roof sat the pigeons fast asleep, with their heads under their wings.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“Hansel, why do you stop and look round?” said the father, “go on.” “I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me,” answered Hansel.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
