killdeer

See also: kill-deer

English

Alternative forms

• kildeer, killdee, kill-deer

Etymology

Imitative of the bird's call.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪldɪɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪldɪə/

Noun

killdeer (plural killdeers or killdeer)

A killdeer.

1. A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) with a distinctive cry and territorial behavior that includes feigning injury to attract predators and spare the young in the nest.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 50:

     A kill-deer, flying so low as to dip its wings, ever and anon alighted on the margin, its stilt-like legs half submerged as it ran hither and thither, now and then bending to dig in the sand with its long slender bill.

Translations

plover

• Apache:

  Western Apache: tábąą dijágé

• Catalan: corriol cua-roig
• Dutch: killdeerplevier (nl)
• Finnish: amerikantylli (fi)
• French: pluvier kildir (fr) m
• German: Keilschwanz-Regenpfeifer m
• Irish: feadóg ghlórach f
• Klamath-Modoc: c'wiididiks
• Navajo: tábąądijádí
• Portuguese: borrelho-de-dupla-coleira m
• Russian: крикли́вый зуёк m (kriklívyj zujók)
• Spanish: chorlo m
• Swedish: skrikstrandpipare c

Anagrams

• rekilled