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Cuckoo   /kˈəkˌu/  /kˈukˌu/   Listen
noun
Cuckoo  n.  (Zool.) A bird belonging to Cuculus, Coccyzus, and several allied genera, of many species. Note: The European cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) builds no nest of its own, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, to be hatched by them. The American yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus Americanus) and the black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythrophthalmus) build their own nests.
Cuckoo clock, a clock so constructed that at the time for striking it gives forth sounds resembling the cry of the cuckoo.
Cuckoo dove (Zool.), a long-tailed pigeon of the genus Macropygia. Many species inhabit the East Indies.
Cuckoo fish (Zool.), the European red gurnard (Trigla cuculus). The name probably alludes to the sound that it utters.
Cuckoo falcon (Zool.), any falcon of the genus Baza. The genus inhabits Africa and the East Indies.
Cuckoo maid (Zool.), the wryneck; called also cuckoo mate.
Cuckoo ray (Zool.), a British ray (Raia miraletus).
Cuckoo spit, or Cuckoo spittle.
(a)
A frothy secretion found upon plants, exuded by the larvae of certain insects, for concealment; called also toad spittle and frog spit.
(b)
(Zool.) A small hemipterous insect, the larva of which, living on grass and the leaves of plants, exudes this secretion. The insects belong to Aphrophora, Helochara, and allied genera.
Ground cuckoo, the chaparral cock.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Cuckoo" Quotes from Famous Books



... present the stand we then took, let us trace the antecedents of Mr. Scandril's opponent up to their source. It has been urged against Mr. Broskin that he spent some years of his life in the lunatic asylum at Warm Springs, in the adjoining commonwealth of Missouri. This cuckoo cry—raised though it is by dogs of political darkness—we shall not stoop to controvert, for it is accidentally true; but next week we shall show, as by the stroke of an enchanter's wand, that this great statesman's detractors would probably not derive any benefits from a residence in the same ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce

... night-singer,—and which no doubt excels the Old World bird in the variety and compass of its powers. The two birds belong to totally distinct families, there being no American species which answers to the European nightingale, as there are that answer to the robin, the cuckoo, the blackbird, and numerous others. Philomel has the color, manners, and habits of a thrush,—our hermit thrush,—but it is not a thrush at all, but a warbler. I gather from the books that its song is protracted and ...
— Birds and Poets • John Burroughs

... in their exuberant haste for dividends, the introduction of foreign labourers. We doubt whether, under any circumstances, such a scheme is practicable; but of this we entertain no doubt, that it is as mischievous a device as ever was forged in the cabinet of Mammon! Some years ago the cuckoo cry of the political quacks was over-population. Now it seems there is a scarcity of hands, and in order to supply the want—for we have drained the Highlands—we are to have an importation from Baden or Bavaria, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. • Various

... morning, to the Hotel Bellevue on the Little Scheideck. In spite of the rain and the squalls, tables had been laid outside in the shelter of the veranda, amid a great display of alpenstocks, flasks, telescopes, cuckoo clocks in carved wood, so that tourists could, while breakfasting, contemplate at a depth of six thousand feet before them the wonderful valley of Grindel-wald on the left, that of Lauterbrunnen on the right, and opposite, within gunshot as it seemed, the immaculate, ...
— Tartarin On The Alps • Alphonse Daudet

... Through the open windows, between the massive bunches of lilacs, hawthorn, and laburnum blossoms, Julien de Buxieres caught glimpses of rolling meadows and softly tinted vistas. The gentle twittering of the birds and the mysterious call of the cuckoo, mingled with the perfume of flowers, stole into his study, and produced a sense of enjoyment as novel to him as it was delightful. Having until the present time lived a sedentary life in cities, he had had no opportunity of experiencing this impression of nature ...
— A Woodland Queen, Complete • Andre Theuriet


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