curlew
/ˈkɜːlju/US/ˈkɝlu/
curlew noun: any of several migratory wading birds in the genus Numenius, remarkable for their long, slender, downcurved bills.
Noun
curlew (plural curlews)
- Any of several migratory wading birds in the genus Numenius, remarkable for their long, slender, downcurved bills.
- The corncrake nested in the unmown field
Answers its mate, across the misty stream
On fitful wing the startled curlews fly,
And in his sedgy bed the lark, for joy that Day is nigh [...]a. 1881, Oscar Wilde, 'The Garden of Eros', in Poems
- The corncrake nested in the unmown field
- A stone curlew (Burhinidae spp.).
- That quivering wail from the billabong lying murkily mystic towards the East was only the cry of the fearing curlew.1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 16
curlew meaning in Malayalam, Sanskrit and Arabic
curlew in Malayalam
- നീർക്കോഴി, മുണ്ടിപ്പക്ഷി, തടിച്ച കാലുള്ള ഒരുതരം പക്ഷി
curlew in Sanskrit
- a curlew
- क्रौञ्च krauñca
curlew in Arabic
- migratory wading bird
- كَرَوَان karawān
Forms of curlew
| plural | curlews |
|---|
Origin of curlew
From Middle English curlew, from Old French courlieu (see French courlis), claimed to be imitative of the bird's cry but apparently assimilated with dialectal *corliu (“runner, messenger”), a variant of coureur (the bird is adept at running).
Words formed from curlew
- beach stone-curlew
- bristle-thighed curlew
- bush stone-curlew
- curlewlike
- eastern curlew
- Eskimo curlew
- Eurasian curlew
- Eurasian stone-curlew
- great stone-curlew
- Hudsonian curlew
- little curlew
- long-billed curlew
- northern curlew
- slender-billed curlew
- stone-curlew
Phrases with curlew
Questions about curlew
- What does curlew mean?
- Curlew means any of several migratory wading birds in the genus Numenius, remarkable for their long, slender, downcurved bills.
- What is curlew in Malayalam?
- Curlew in Malayalam is നീർക്കോഴി, മുണ്ടിപ്പക്ഷി, തടിച്ച കാലുള്ള ഒരുതരം പക്ഷി. See Curlew meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is curlew?
- Curlew is a noun.
- How do you pronounce curlew?
- Curlew is pronounced /ˈkɜːlju/ (UK).
- What is the plural of curlew?
- The plural of curlew is curlews.
Words near curlew in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: curlew (page history and authors); curlew (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); क्रौञ्च (Sanskrit) (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-curlew.wav.
Cite this entry: “curlew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/curlew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.