Woodpecker

//ˈwʊdˌpɛkɚ// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.

    "On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes."

  2. 2
    bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects wordnet
  3. 3
    A Type 92 heavy machine gun. slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
magpiepeckerpeckerwoodspeightspeightspight

Example

More examples

"The woodpecker is feeding its mate."

Etymology

From wood + pecker. Compare Middle English wod spek (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodehake (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodewale (“woodpecker”). Displaced speight.

Related phrases

African grey woodpeckerAndaman woodpeckerArabian woodpeckerBennett's woodpeckerCalifornia woodpeckerCuban green woodpeckerCuban ivory-billed woodpeckerDarjeeling woodpeckerElliot's woodpeckerEurasian three-toed woodpeckerEuropean green woodpeckerGabon woodpecker

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