Egg-bird
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of several species of tern, especially:; The white-fronted tern (Sterna striata). dated
"Saw some Albatrosses and petrels, and in the evening an Egg bird or Tern which lighted on the ship was caught but differ’d from all any of us had seen before. It was about the size of the common Tern or sea swallow with the head, back and coverts of the wings finely variegated with black and white, the rest of the body being nearly white and the Bill and feet black."
- 2 Any of several species of tern, especially:; The sooty tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) of the West Indies. dated
- 3 Any of several species of tern, especially:; The white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). Bahamas, dated
Example
More examples"Saw some Albatrosses and petrels, and in the evening an Egg bird or Tern which lighted on the ship was caught but differ’d from all any of us had seen before. It was about the size of the common Tern or sea swallow with the head, back and coverts of the wings finely variegated with black and white, the rest of the body being nearly white and the Bill and feet black."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.