mutton bird
mutton bird noun: any of various seabirds whose flesh is said to taste like mutton when cooked, especially Puffinus griseus, Puffinus tenuirostris, or a petrel of the genus Pterodroma.
Noun
mutton bird (plural mutton birds)
- Any of various seabirds whose flesh is said to taste like mutton when cooked, especially Puffinus griseus, Puffinus tenuirostris, or a petrel of the genus Pterodroma.
- He dubbed them mutton-birds, for they came like lambs to the slaughter.1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 186
- Mutton Bird (Puffinus tenuirostris) Ornithosis
Early in 1953 Dr. D. L. Serventy sent us twelve mutton birds from the Bass Strait Islands for another investigation. One of these birds died shortly after reaching Adelaide.1959, Monographiae Biologicae, volume 8, page 422
Forms of mutton bird
| plural | mutton birds |
|---|---|
| alternative form | mutton-bird |
| alternative form | muttonbird |
Questions about mutton bird
- What does mutton bird mean?
- Mutton bird means any of various seabirds whose flesh is said to taste like mutton when cooked, especially Puffinus griseus, Puffinus tenuirostris, or a petrel of the genus Pterodroma.
- What part of speech is mutton bird?
- Mutton bird is a noun.
- What is the plural of mutton bird?
- The plural of mutton bird is mutton birds.
Words near mutton bird in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mutton bird (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-mutton bird.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mutton bird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mutton_bird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.