sandpiper

3 definitions found

sandpiper - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Sandpiper \Sand"pi`per\, n.
     1. (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline
        game birds belonging to Tringa, Actodromas,
        Ereunetes, and various allied genera of the family
        Tringidae.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The most important North American species are the
           pectoral sandpiper (Tringa maculata), called also
           brownback, grass snipe, and jacksnipe; the
           red-backed, or black-breasted, sandpiper, or dunlin
           (Tringa alpina); the purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima
           : the red-breasted sandpiper, or knot (Tringa canutus
           ); the semipalmated sandpiper (Ereunetes pusillus
           ); the spotted sandpiper, or teeter-tail
           (Actitis macularia); the buff-breasted sandpiper
           (Tryngites subruficollis), and the Bartramian
           sandpiper, or upland plover. See under Upland. Among
           the European species are the dunlin, the knot, the
           ruff, the sanderling, and the common sandpiper
           (Actitis hypoleucus syn. Tringoides hypoleucus),
           called also fiddler, peeper, pleeps, weet-weet,
           and summer snipe. Some of the small plovers and
           tattlers are also called sandpipers.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Zool.) A small lamprey eel; the pride.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Curlew sandpiper. See under Curlew.
  
     Stilt sandpiper. See under Stilt.
        [1913 Webster]

  Pride \Pride\, n. [Cf. AS. lamprede, LL. lampreda, E. lamprey.]
     (Zool.)
     A small European lamprey (Petromyzon branchialis); --
     called also prid, and sandpiper.
     [1913 Webster]

sandpiper - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  sandpiper
      n 1: any of numerous usually small wading birds having a slender
           bill and piping call; closely related to the plovers