Word.ws English Dictionary

crowbill

Syllables: crow·bill/ˈkɹəʊbɪl/US/ˈkɹoʊˌbɪl/

crowbill noun: a kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds.

Noun

crowbill (plural crowbills)

  1. A kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds.
    Synonyms:
    crow's bill
  2. (historical) Synonym of bec de corbin (“poleaxe with a modified hammerhead and a spike mounted on the top of the pole”).
    Synonyms:
    bec de corbin

Synonyms of crowbill

Forms of crowbill

pluralcrowbills
alternative formcrow-bill

Origin of crowbill

From crow (“bird of the genus Corvus”) + bill (“beak of a bird”). Sense 1 (“kind of forceps”) is probably from its appearance, while sense 2 (“type of poleaxe”) is a calque of French bec de corbin (literally “crow or raven's beak”).

Questions about crowbill

What does crowbill mean?
Crowbill means a kind of forceps for extracting bullets, etc., from wounds.
What part of speech is crowbill?
Crowbill is a noun.
How do you pronounce crowbill?
Crowbill is pronounced /ˈkɹəʊbɪl/ (UK).
What is the plural of crowbill?
The plural of crowbill is crowbills.

Words near crowbill in the dictionary

  1. crowbarred
  2. crowbarring
  3. crowbars
  4. crowberries
  5. crowberry
  6. crowbill
  7. crowbills
  8. Crowborough
  9. Crowcombe
  10. Crowcombe Heathfield
  11. crowd

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crowbill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crowbill.wav.

Cite this entry: “crowbill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crowbill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.