Word.ws English Dictionary

magpie

Syllables: mag·pie/ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/

magpie noun: one of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica.

magpie: one of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica
Image: Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

magpie (plural magpies)

  1. One of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica.
  2. A superficially similar Australian bird, Gymnorhina tibicen, in the family Artamidae.
  3. (figuratively) Someone who displays a magpie-like quality such as hoarding or stealing objects.
    • 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.2005 April 15, Michiko Kakutani, “The Plot Thins, or Are No Stories New?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  4. (slang) A fan or member of Newcastle United F.C.
  5. (UK) In the sport of fullbore target rifle, the third circle on a target, between the inner and outer.
  6. (UK, obsolete, slang) A halfpenny.
  7. (attributive) A pattern resembling the pied plumage of a magpie.
    • 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.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 12
    • The worst part of my experience in this magpie livery was yet to come, for I was to appear in it the next day at church.1889, Henry White, The Record of My Life: An Autobiography, Cheltenham: Henry White, page 60

Verb

magpie (third-person singular simple present magpies, present participle magpieing, simple past and past participle magpied)

  1. (transitive) To mark with patches of black and white or light and dark.
    • The little rail-enclosed plots that lay between the pavements and the hotels were magpied with torn paper […]1914, Oliver Onions, Mushroom Town, New York: George H. Doran, Part 4, Chapter 3, pp. 292-293
    • […] she stood at the window and saw the lake blue with spring and a few patches of snow that magpied the hills.1952, Michael McLaverty, chapter 15, in Truth in the Night, Dublin: Poolbeg, published 1986, page 179
    Synonyms:
    mottle
  2. (ambitransitive) To steal or hoard (items) as magpies are believed to do.
    • […] 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...1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., Part 2, Chapter 1
    • “I had to borrow those photographs Aunt Nettie was storing in her closet.”
      “Isn’t that interesting?” May said. “I have to say, I never did understand why Mrs. Hatch asked me to magpie them out of the library.”1999, Peter Straub, chapter 131, in Mr. X, New York: Random House, page 469
  3. (intransitive) To talk idly; to talk about other people's private business.
    • He knew how people were magpieing with their malicious chatter that she had committed the cardinal sin of believing love was permanent […]1978, Jean Rikhoff, Where Were You in ’76?, New York: Richard Marek Publishers, Book 1, Chapter 2, p. 28
    Synonyms:
    chatter, gossip

Noun (2) capitalized: Magpie

Magpie (plural Magpies)

  1. Someone connected with Newcastle United Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  2. Someone connected with Notts County Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  3. (Australian rules football) Someone connected with Collingwood Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  4. (rugby league) Someone connected with the Western Suburbs Magpies, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  5. A town in the City of Ballarat, central western Victoria, Australia.

magpie meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Pashto

magpie in Hindi

bird of genus Pica
अधेला adhelā

magpie in Tamil

நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும் பறவைகளில், இது ஒரு சிறப்பு இனமாகும்

magpie in Bengali

নীলকন্ঠ পাখি, কিচিরি মিচিরকারী দৃষ্ট পাখিবিশেষ

magpie in Pashto

bird of genus Pica
اوږبۍ uẓbᶕy, بوږبۍ boẓbáy, عکه áka
More languagesFewer languages
magpie in Tagalog
dominiko
magpie in Arabic
عَقْعَق ʕaqʕaq
magpie in Indonesian
murai
magpie in Persian
زاغ zâġ, کلاچه kalâče, زاغی zâġi
magpie in Vietnamese
chim ác là

Examples of magpie in a sentence

  • […] they looked down upon Highmost Redmanhey, timber and plaster magpied by the moon, and a lamp in the window of the room where Susan lay.1963, Alan Garner, chapter 8, in The Moon of Gomrath, New York: Collins, published 1979, page 64:
  • […] young Inspector Cruse arrived at the Dun Cow, entering through a door tricked out as Tudor and set into a façade magpied with white paint and nailed-on beams […]1979, Jack S. Scott, chapter 6, in A Clutch of Vipers,, New York: Harper & Row, page 76:
  • 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....1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., Part 2, Chapter 1:
  • I have magpied from here and there, borrowing influences from Morocco, Greece, Italy and my notebooks to end up with a handful of easy little dishes that complement each other.2012, Alice Hart, Friends at My Table, London: Quadrille, page 175:

All 13 example sentences with magpie

Synonyms of magpie

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of magpie

Forms of magpie

Noun
pluralmagpies
pluralMagpies
Verb
third-person singular presentmagpies
present participlemagpieing
past participlemagpied
pastmagpied

Plural of magpie: magpies

Origin of magpie

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.

Words formed from magpie

Phrases with magpie

Questions about magpie

What does magpie mean?
Magpie means one of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica.
What is magpie in Hindi?
Magpie in Hindi is अधेला (adhelā). See Magpie meaning in Hindi.
How do you use magpie in a sentence?
[…] they looked down upon Highmost Redmanhey, timber and plaster magpied by the moon, and a lamp in the window of the room where Susan lay.
What part of speech is magpie?
Magpie can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce magpie?
Magpie is pronounced /ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/.
What is the plural of magpie?
The plural of magpie is magpies.

Words near magpie in the dictionary

  1. magotty bay bean
  2. Magowan
  3. Magpantay
  4. Magpantays
  5. Magpet
  6. magpie
  7. Magpie Festival
  8. magpie geese
  9. magpie goose
  10. magpie inkcap
  11. magpie moth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: magpie (page history and authors); Magpie (page history and authors); magpie (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); magpie (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: En-au-magpie.ogg.

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