Meaning

2 senses
  1. A bird of prey of genus Pandion that feeds on fish and has white underparts and long, narrow wings each ending in four finger-like extensions.

    1594, George Peele (attributed), The Battle of Alcazar I will provide thee of a princely osprey.

    Fischadler

    скопа́skopá

  2. Aigrette (ornamental feather).

More definitions
  • large harmless hawk found worldwide that feeds on fish and builds a bulky nest often occupied for years

Examples

3 sentences
  1. An osprey can completely submerge itself when it dives after a fish.

  2. Ospreys often mate for life, though instances of polyandry have been observed.

  3. Ospreys can dive full speed into water, surface just moments later, and then immediately take flight.

Translations

8 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
bird of prey:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
bird of prey:

Origin

From Late Middle English ospray, from Anglo-Norman ospriet, from Medieval Latin avis praed

From Late Middle English ospray, from Anglo-Norman ospriet, from Medieval Latin avis praedae (“bird of prey”), a generic term apparently confused with this specific bird in Old French on its similarity to ossifrage.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: ospreys
Singularosprey
Pluralospreys

regular

Synonyms

7 synonyms
fish eagleorfrayossifragefish hawkosspringer
Close in meaning
  • large harmless hawk found worldwide that feeds on fish and builds a bulky nest often occupied for years:fish hawkfish eaglesea eaglePandion haliaetus

Word family

1 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

osprey — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto