Word.ws English Dictionary

shadbird

shadbird noun: the American snipe; Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata).

Noun

shadbird (plural shadbirds)

  1. (UK, dated, dialectal) The American snipe; Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata).
  2. (UK, dated, dialectal) The common snipe or European sandpiper (Gallinago gallinago).

Forms of shadbird

pluralshadbirds

Origin of shadbird

From shad + bird, since it appears at the same time as the shad (a fish).

Questions about shadbird

What does shadbird mean?
Shadbird means the American snipe; Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata).
What part of speech is shadbird?
Shadbird is a noun.
What is the plural of shadbird?
The plural of shadbird is shadbirds.

Words near shadbird in the dictionary

  1. Shadang
  2. shadbellies
  3. shadbelly
  4. shadberries
  5. shadberry
  6. shadbird
  7. shadbirds
  8. shadblow
  9. shadblows
  10. Shadbolt
  11. shadbush

Source and license

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