What does "goatsucker" mean?

Any bird in the nightjar family Caprimulgidae.

What is a synonym for "goatsucker"?

Common synonyms include: caprimulgid, nightjar.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any bird in the nightjar family Caprimulgidae.
"[…] ah, that was the woodcock - and the goatsucker - yes, yes! it sounds strange to him, that hasn't heard him […]"
2
mainly crepuscular or nocturnal nonpasserine birds with mottled greyish-brown plumage and large eyes; feed on insects wordnet

"[…] ah, that was the woodcock - and the goatsucker - yes, yes! it sounds strange to him, that hasn't heard him […]"

From goat + sucker, from the ancient folk belief that they sucked milk from goats.

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