SHRIKE
\ʃɹˈa͡ɪk], \ʃɹˈaɪk], \ʃ_ɹ_ˈaɪ_k]\
Definitions of SHRIKE
- 2010 - New Age Dictionary Database
- 1913 - Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
- 1919 - The Winston Simplified Dictionary
- 1899 - The american dictionary of the english language.
- 1914 - Nuttall's Standard dictionary of the English language
- 1871 - The Cabinet Dictionary of the English Language
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Any one of numerous species of oscinine birds of the family Laniidae, having a strong hooked bill, toothed at the tip. Most shrikes are insectivorous, but the common European gray shrike (Lanius excubitor), the great northern shrike (L. borealis), and several others, kill mice, small birds, etc., and often impale them on thorns, and are, on that account called also butcher birds. See under Butcher.
By Oddity Software
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Any one of numerous species of oscinine birds of the family Laniidae, having a strong hooked bill, toothed at the tip. Most shrikes are insectivorous, but the common European gray shrike (Lanius excubitor), the great northern shrike (L. borealis), and several others, kill mice, small birds, etc., and often impale them on thorns, and are, on that account called also butcher birds. See under Butcher.
By Noah Webster.
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Any of various birds which feed chiefly on insects, but which sometimes kill smaller birds, mice, etc.
By William Dodge Lewis, Edgar Arthur Singer
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A bird which preys on insects and small birds, impaling its prey on thorns, hence called the Butcher Bird.
By Daniel Lyons
By Nuttall, P.Austin.
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n. A rapacious bird of the genus Lanius, characterized by a strong compressed conical beak, more or less hooked, with which they prey on birds, frogs, and insects. The shrikes are gregarious, fly precipitately with a sharp, shrill cry—hence the name, and are said to suspend their prey when killed on thorns:—hence called butcher birds.
