crow1
/krəʊ
/noun
1A large perching bird with mostly glossy black plumage, a heavy bill, and a raucous voice.
- Genus Corvus, family Corvidae (the crow family): several species, including the carrion crow (C. corone) and the American crow (C. brachyrhynchos). The crow family also includes the ravens, jays, magpies, choughs, and nutcrackers.
- Large black birds like crows and grackles are often referred to as trash birds.
- We mostly saw the usual sparrows, doves, crows, chickadees, and titmice. Tons of Blue Jay are in flight right now as they are involved in a migration of their own.
2 informal, derogatory An old or ugly woman: to my two sons I am still just the old crow...
- At other booths, the photographers allowed participants to reject their first photo in favor of a more flattering one, but the old crow and her minion hurried me off the set.
- ‘I'll phone our favourite old crow Edith then,’ Grandma relented.
- Hah, that old crow could forbid me all she wants, but I won't give up my archery.
Phrases
as the crow flies
eat crow
Origin
Old English crāwe, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch kraai and German Krähe, also to crow2.
Rhymes
crow2
/krəʊ/verb (past crowed or crew /kruː/) [no object]
1(Of a cock) utter its characteristic loud cry: she was awakened in the mornings by cocks crowing...
- Funny, I thought normal roosters crowed in the morning.
- When the rooster crowed to greet the morning, Ben thought he sounded awfully close by but to find the fowl on the foot of his bed was closer than he thought!
- Here you can see women washing clothes in the river, children chasing each other in narrow lanes, chickens crowing and dogs barking at strangers.
Synonyms
squawk, screech, hoot, cry, caw, croak
2(Of a person) express great pride or triumph, especially in a tone of gloating satisfaction: Ruby crowed with delight avoid crowing about your success [with direct speech]: ‘I knew you ’d be back,' she crowed...
- She will crow in delight when she spots either one of them.
- In fact, he's crowing and preening in the spotlight that he's brought to bear on his actions.
- You had to dig nuggets out from him about his career because he hated it to seem as if he was crowing but this was one incident he would talk about.
Synonyms
boast, brag, trumpet, show off, bluster, swagger, swank, gloat, be smug, congratulate oneself, preen oneself, pride oneself, pat oneself on the back, sing one's own praises;
glory in, exult in, triumph over, parade, flaunt
informal talk big, blow hard, rub it in, lay it on thick, shoot one's mouth off, blow one's own trumpet
Australian/New Zealand informal skite
literary vaunt, roister
archaic rodomontade, gasconade
noun
1 [usually in singular] The cry of a cock.Beware of the bark of a dog or crow of a cock at night, for they signify death....
- I am up like the cock's crow on Wednesdays to get ready for the bus, which picks me up at my door.
- Following sunrise comes the clanging sound of scores of church bells, coupled with the crow of roosters from the adjacent Moslem Quarter.
2A sound made by a person expressing great pride or triumph: she gave a little crow of triumph...
- They cut past their rival by mere feet and she took one hand off the wheel long enough to doff her hat and wave it with a crow of triumph.
- He crows in triumph, and both of us pull as hard as we can and the pipe gives way as half the toilet breaks off and lands on the floor.
- I let out a mental crow of delight as I discover that I can control where I'm going.
Origin
Old English crāwan, of West Germanic origin; related to German krähen, also to crow1; ultimately imitative.
Crow3
/krəʊ/noun (plural same or Crows)
1A member of an American Indian people inhabiting eastern Montana.We arrived at Fort Peck and learned that our Indian visitors were a war party of Crows going to fight the Sioux....
- The Crows were an offshoot of the Hidatsas, and they made summer journeys east to trade with the descendants of their forebears.
- Another mulatto trapper to achieve distinction among the Crows, at least in his own telling, was James P. Beckwourth.
2 [mass noun] The Siouan language of the Crow, with about 5,000 speakers.
adjective
Relating to the Crow or their language.‘The New and Old Testaments in the Absaroki or Crow Indian Language by a Missionary of the Society of Jesus’ came into the possession of the Montana Historical Society in August 2004....
- A Lieutenant Luther Hare had ridden ahead of the column with some Crow scouts.
- As Clark and his party explored the Yellowstone, a Crow raiding party stole the horses belonging to a detail led by Sgt. Pryor.
Origin
Suggested by French gens de corbeaux, translating Siouan apsáaloke 'crow people'.