Buzzard
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any of several Old World birds of prey of the genus Buteo with broad wings and a broad tail.
- 2 A bastard. euphemistic
- 3 the common European short-winged hawk wordnet
- 4 Any scavenging bird, such as the American black vulture (Coragyps atratus) or the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). Canada, US
- 5 a New World vulture that is common in South America and Central America and the southern United States wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 In North America, a curmudgeonly or cantankerous man; an old person; a mean, greedy person. colloquial, derogatory, slang
"Perhaps the crusty old buzzard loved his only child more than anyone had given him credit for all these years — maybe even more than he himself had realized."
- 7 A blockhead; a dunce. archaic
"1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 142, An old man’s shadow is better than a young buzzard’s sword."
- 8 Synonym of double bogey.
- 9 A fighter plane. US, World-War-I, slang
- 10 The insignia of a colonel, or a petty officer within the navy. US, dated, slang
- 11 A military discharge (due to the military discharge certificate). US, slang
- 1 A surname from Old French.
Example
More examples"The coyote skulks among the scrub, the buzzard flaps heavily through the air, and the clumsy grizzly bear lumbers through the dark ravines, and picks up such sustenance as it can amongst the rocks. These are the sole dwellers in the wilderness."
Etymology
From Middle English bosart, from Anglo-Norman buisart, from Old French busart, busard, a derivative ( + -ard) of Old French buison, buson (French buse), possibly from Latin būteō (“hawk”).
Related phrases
More for "buzzard"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.