morepork

Noun

morepork (plural moreporks)

1. (New Zealand) The Tasmanian spotted owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae), a small brown owl indigenous to New Zealand and Tasmania.
   • [T]he eye of the Morepork or Greater Night Jarr,^([sic]) which I lately had the opportunity of examining, is wonderfully adapted for enabling it to see the insects in the dark, on which it feeds.1843, James Backhouse, chapter XVIII, in A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. […]; York, Yorkshire: John L. Linney, […], →OCLC, page 213
   • Although the living figure of our owl may be unknown to most persons, from the nature of its habits, yet few, perhaps very few, of the older settlers are unacquainted with the human-like cry of the More-pork.1871 May, T[homas] H[enry] Potts, “Art. XI.—On the Birds of New Zealand. … (Part II.)”, in James Hector, editor, Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 1870, volume III...

   Synonyms:

   mopoke, ruru

2. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, derogatory) A foolish person; also, a person who is wearisome.
   • It is interesting that the Opposition morepork is starting to chirp. [...] We have all heard about the "gang of four and a half"—the morepork brigade.1985 July 16, Ken Shirley, “Appropriation Bill (No. 2)—Financial Statement: Second Reading”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): First Session, Forty-first Parliament (House of Representatives)...
3. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, derogatory) A person who is lazy or slow; a slowcoach, a slowpoke.
   • Where's that old morepoke? O, you're there, are you? Fetch the jack off o' your wagon—come! fly roun'! you're (very) slow for a young fellow.1903 August 1, Tom Collins [pseudonym; Joseph Furphy], chapter 1, in Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins, Sydney, N.S.W.: Bulletin Newspaper Company, →OCLC; republished...

   Synonyms:

   bum, couch potato, dawdler, deadbeat, dogfucker, do-naught, do-nothing, dosser, idler, idleton

Interjection

1. The call of a morepork.
   • [T]he morepork, a species of caprimulgus, or goatsucker,^([sic]) keeps up all night the exact repetition of its own name, "Morepork! morepork!" It is a sound to me most expressive of a dreary loneliness and twilight distance that I ever heard.1852 December 1, William Howitt, “Letter VII”, in Land, Labour, and Gold; or, Two Years in Victoria: With Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen’s Land. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Longman, Brown...
   • As soon as the shades of evening close in over the Australian forest, the ear is startled by the cry of "morepoke," clearly and loudly repeated, and a bird as large as an owl flits by on noiseless wing, like the goat-sucker at home. This is the Morepoke, a species of large night-jar,^([sic]) all...1861, [Horace William Wheelwright], “A Chapter on the Ornithology of Port Phillip”, in Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist; or, Notes on the Field Sports and Fauna of Australia Felix. By an Old Bushman...