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Magpie
Definitions
- 1 One of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica.
- 2 Someone connected with Newcastle United Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
- 3 long-tailed black-and-white crow that utters a raucous chattering call wordnet
- 4 A superficially similar Australian bird, Gymnorhina tibicen, in the family Artamidae.
- 5 Someone connected with Notts County Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
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- 6 an obnoxious and foolish and loquacious talker wordnet
- 7 Someone who displays a magpie-like quality such as hoarding or stealing objects. figuratively
"Not only is Mr. Booker a voracious magpie (who does not always acknowledge the sources of his ideas), but he also turns out to be an annoyingly biased and didactic one."
- 8 Someone connected with Collingwood Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
- 9 someone who collects things that have been discarded by others wordnet
- 10 A fan or member of Newcastle United F.C. slang
- 11 Someone connected with the Western Suburbs Magpies, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
- 12 The third circle on a target, between the inner and outer.
- 13 A town in the City of Ballarat, central western Victoria, Australia.
- 14 A halfpenny. UK, obsolete, slang
- 15 A pattern resembling the pied plumage of a magpie. attributive
"Kitty and I were engaged. The next day I met those accursed “magpie” Jhampanies at the back of Jakko, and, moved by some passing sentiment of pity, stopped to tell Mrs. Wessington everything."
- 1 To mark with patches of black and white or light and dark. transitive
"The little rail-enclosed plots that lay between the pavements and the hotels were magpied with torn paper […]"
- 2 To steal or hoard (items) as magpies are believed to do. ambitransitive
"[…] she liked to be able to have a picturesque fact or two with which to support herself when she too, to hold attention, wanted to issue moving statements as to revolutions, anarchies and strife in the offing. And she had noticed that when she magpied Tietjens’ conversations more serious men in responsible positions were apt to argue with her and to pay her more attention than before...."
- 3 To talk idly; to talk about other people's private business. intransitive
"He knew how people were magpieing with their malicious chatter that she had committed the cardinal sin of believing love was permanent […]"
Etymology
From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.
From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.
See also for "magpie"
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Unscramble this word: magpie