morepoke

English

Noun

morepoke (plural morepokes)

1. Alternative spelling of morepork
   • 1876, Richard Rowe, “The Bunyip”, in A Child’s Corner Book: Stories for Boys and Girls, London, Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo. […], →OCLC, page 182:

     [I]t was better fun wandering about with the old man at night than moping in my hut, listening to the morepoke.

   • 1903 August 1, Tom Collins [pseudonym; Joseph Furphy], chapter 1, in Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, Sydney, N.S.W.: Bulletin Newspaper Company, →OCLC; republished Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin House of Books, 2012, →ISBN:

     Where's that old morepoke? O, you're there, are you? Fetch the jack off o' your wagon—come! fly roun'! you're (very) slow for a young fellow.

   • 2016, Brigid Lowry, “My Inky Life: Thoughts about Writing Memoir”, in Still Life with Teapot: On Zen, Writing and Creativity, North Fremantle, W.A.: Fremantle Press, →ISBN:

     We were a family of odd bods and every summer we spent by the river. At night the morepokes called again and again.

Interjection

morepoke

1. Alternative spelling of morepork
   • 1861, [Horace William Wheelwright], “A Chapter on the Ornithology of Port Phillip”, in Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist; or, Notes on the Field Sports and Fauna of Australia Felix. By an Old Bushman, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, […], →OCLC, page 126:

     As soon as the shades of evening close in over the Australian forest, the ear is startled by the cry of "morepoke," clearly and loudly repeated, and a bird as large as an owl flits by on noiseless wing, like the goat-sucker at home. This is the Morepoke, a species of large night-jar,^[sic] all head and mouth, about the size of an owl.