Hummingbird
WordNet
noun
(1) Tiny American bird having brilliant iridescent plumage and long slender bills; wings are specialized for vibrating flight
WiktionaryText
Etymology
- Onomatopoeic of the humming sound made by the rapidly moving wings. See hum. See below Quotations
Noun
- Any of various small American birds in the family Trochilidae that have the ability to hover.
Quotations
- 1857 Thoreau, Henry David, journal entry, May 29, 1857. From Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, p238. (Originally published as the anthology Thoreau's bird-lore, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910, edited by Francis H. Allen.)
- Soon I hear the low all-pervading hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above the rock, [...]
Related terms
- trochilidine