Deathbird

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Tengmalm's owl (Nyctala tengmalmi)

Etymology

From a superstition of some North American Indians that it presages death. Compare Salentino Sicilian oceddu de la morte (“owl”, literally “death bird”) and Malagasy vorondolo (“owl”, literally “ghost bird”).

Related phrases

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