Adzebill

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Either of two bird species of the extinct family †Aptornithidae, once endemic to New Zealand.

    "But other large birds were slaughtered – the flightless goose, an enormous rail now known as the adzebill, swans and pelicans, all of them, like the moa, exploited to the point of extinction after little more than 100 years."

Example

More examples

"But other large birds were slaughtered – the flightless goose, an enormous rail now known as the adzebill, swans and pelicans, all of them, like the moa, exploited to the point of extinction after little more than 100 years."

Etymology

From adze + bill.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.