whewer

Examples of whewer in a sentence

• With the Fish I have put up in a Box some Water Fowl, viz. a Pocker, a Smew, three Sheldins, a Widgeon, and a Whewer; which two last are Male and Female of the same kind.1718 [1674], John Ray, Francis Willughby, Philosophical Letters Between the Late Learned Mr. Ray and Several of His Ingenious...
• Widgeons are common in Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely, &c. where the male is called the widgeon, and the female, the whewer.1806, Thomas Smith, The Naturalist's Cabinet: Containing Interesting Sketches of Natural History; Illustrative of the Natures...
• the choicer fowl of mallard and widgeon (locally "whewers"), both in the Humber and the Tees, the former species being, of course, resident in the county.1908, Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, page 172:

Forms of whewer

Origin of whewer

Century, Wright's English Dialect Dictionary and the 1933 OED take it to be from whew (“(to make) a shrill whistling sound like the cry of a plover”) + -er, and early cites also call the bird the "whistling widgeon".

Questions about whewer

What does whewer mean?

Whewer means whew duck, Eurasian wigeon, wigeon (Mareca penelope).

How do you use whewer in a sentence?

With the Fish I have put up in a Box some Water Fowl, viz. a Pocker, a Smew, three Sheldins, a Widgeon, and a Whewer; which two last are Male and Female of the same kind.

What part of speech is whewer?

Whewer is a noun.

How do you pronounce whewer?

Whewer is pronounced /hwjuːə/.

What is the plural of whewer?

The plural of whewer is whewers.