starlings

Noun (1)

starling (plural starlings)

1. A family, Sturnidae, of passerine birds.
   1. The common starling, Sturnus vulgaris, which has dark, iridescent plumage.
      • Vast flights of starlings, fleeing the racket, beat across the sky at high speed, like Squall-clouds,— Evening at Noon-tide.1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 52, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 501
2. A fish, rock trout (Hexagrammos spp.), of the North Pacific, especially, Hexagrammos decagrammus, found in US waters.

   Synonyms:

   boregat, bodieron

Noun (2)

starling (plural starlings)

1. An enclosure like a coffer-dam, formed of piles driven closely together before any structure or work, as a protection against the wash of waves, commonly used to protect the piers of a bridge.
2. One of the piles used in forming such a breakwater.

See all 7 meanings of starling