MAGPIE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Magpie

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/mˈægpˌaɪ/ Listen

noun

Magpie n. (Zool.)

1.

Any one of numerous species of the genus Pica and related genera, allied to the jays, but having a long graduated tail.

2.

Any one of several black-and-white birds, such as Gymnorhina tibicen, not belonging to the genus Pica. Note: The common European magpie (Pica pica, or Pica caudata) is a black and white noisy and mischievous bird. It can be taught to speak. The American magpie (Pica Hudsonica) is very similar. The yellow-belled magpie (Pica Nuttalli) inhabits California. The blue magpie (Cyanopolius Cooki) inhabits Spain. Other allied species are found in Asia. The Tasmanian and Australian magpies are crow shrikes, as the white magpie (Gymnorhina organicum), the black magpie (Strepera fuliginosa), and the Australian magpie (Cracticus picatus).

3.

A talkative person; a chatterbox.

Magpie lark (Zool.), a common Australian bird (Grallina picata), conspicuously marked with black and white; called also little magpie.

Magpie moth (Zool.), a black and white European geometrid moth (Abraxas grossulariata); the harlequin moth. Its larva feeds on currant and gooseberry bushes.

See images of 'Magpie'

Etymology of 'Magpie'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Magpie" Quotes from Famous Books

... the darkness, and proceeds on her road to Vannes. On awakening next morning, Comorre finds his wife fled, and pursues her on horseback. The poor fugitive, seeing her ring turn black, turned off the road and hid herself till night in the cabin of a shepherd, where was only an old magpie in a cage at the door. Comorre, who had given up the pursuit, was returning home that road, when he heard the magpie trying to imitate her complaints, and calling out "Poor Triphyna!" he therefore knew his wife ...

— Brittany & Its Byways • Fanny Bury Palliser

... Speke Hall, the home of Mr. Norreys, on the banks of the Mersey, a beautiful house of magpie architecture, and furnished with a remarkable underground passage to the shore of the Mersey, the scene of ...

— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

... greatest punctuality as the meal was placed on the table. He acquired the habit, afterwards, of rambling about the street near our house, and one day he was stolen, so we gave him up for lost. But two days afterwards he stepped through the open doorway at dinner hour, with his old gait, and sly magpie-like expression, having escaped from the house where he had been guarded by the person who had stolen him, and which was situated at the further ...

— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... chatted like a magpie, and little Maud fidgeted, till Tom proposed to put her under the big dish cover, which produced such an explosion that the young lady was borne screaming away by ...

— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... the earth among fallen dead branches, or are torn away from the old abandoned nest of a crow or some other bird. The Squirrel firsts builds a rather hollow floor by intermingling the fragments of wood which it has brought. In this state its dwelling resembles a magpie's nest. But the fastidious little animal wishes to be better protected and not thus to sleep in the open air. Over this foundation he raises a conical roof; the sticks which form it are very skilfully disposed, ...

— The Industries of Animals • Frederic Houssay

Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com