redbreast
redbreast noun: a European robin, Erithacus rubecula.
Noun
redbreast (plural redbreasts)
- A European robin, Erithacus rubecula.
- There was a pleasant frosty sun glittering through the twigs of the leafless shrubs, and flashing on the ripples and undulations of the Liffey, and the redbreasts and sparrows were picking up the crumbs which the housekeeper had thrown for them outside.1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, and There Read a Paragraph in an Old Newspaper”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley...
- I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281
- An American robin, Turdus migratorius.
Forms of redbreast
| plural | redbreasts |
|---|
Origin of redbreast
From Middle English redbreste, equivalent to red + breast.
Words formed from redbreast
Questions about redbreast
- What does redbreast mean?
- Redbreast means a European robin, Erithacus rubecula.
- What part of speech is redbreast?
- Redbreast is a noun.
- What is the plural of redbreast?
- The plural of redbreast is redbreasts.
Words near redbreast in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: redbreast (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:
Cite this entry: “redbreast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/redbreast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.