plover
UK /ˈplʌvə/ · US /ˈplʌvɚ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms plovers plovering plovered
- noun Any of various wading birds of the subfamily Charadriinae.
- noun (Australia) A masked lapwing (Vanellus miles).
- verb To dote over, or, crowd or nestle with
- verb To hunt for plover.
- verb To wade along the shore, examining the sand like a plover does.
- proper noun A minor city in Pocahontas County, Iowa, United States, named for the bird.
- proper noun A town in Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States.
- proper noun A town and village in Portage County, Wisconsin.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English plover, from Anglo-Norman plover, plovier, from Medieval Latin plovarius, pluviārius, of disputed origin; perhaps from Latin pluvia (“rain”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of numerous species of limicoline birds belonging to the family Charadridæ, and especially those belonging to the subfamily Charadrinsæ. They are prized as game birds.
- noun Any grallatorial bird allied to, or resembling, the true plovers, as the crab plover (Dromas ardeola); the American upland, plover (Bartramia longicauda); and other species of sandpipers.
Etymology [OF. plovier, F. pluvier, prop., the rain bird, fr. LL. (assumed) pluviarius, fr. L. pluvia rain, from pluere to rain; akin to E. float, G. fliessen to flow. See Float.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “plover”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details