cuckoo's mate

1 definition found

cuckoo's mate - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Wryneck \Wry"neck\, n. (Med.)
     [1913 Webster]
     1. A twisted or distorted neck; a deformity in which the neck
        is drawn to one side by a rigid contraction of one of the
        muscles of the neck; torticollis.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. a person suffering from torticollis.
        [PJC]
  
     3. (Zool.) Any one of several species of Old World birds of
        the genus Jynx or subfamily Jynginae, allied to the
        woodpeckers; especially, the common European species
        (Jynx torguilla); -- so called from its habit of turning
        the neck around in different directions. Called also
        cuckoo's mate, snakebird, summer bird, tonguebird,
        and writheneck.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]