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crow

Pronunciation: /kɹəʊ/

The English word “crow” has 15 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A bird, usually black, of the genus Corvus, having a strong conical beak, with projecting bristles; it has a harsh, croaking call.
  2. Any of various dark-coloured nymphalid butterflies of the genus Euploea.
  3. A bar of iron with a beak, crook or claw; a bar of iron used as a lever; a crowbar.
  4. Someone who keeps watch while their associates commit a crime; a lookout.
  5. A gangplank (corvus) used by the Ancient Roman navy to board enemy ships.
  6. The mesentery of an animal.
  7. An ill-tempered and obstinate woman, or one who otherwise has features resembling the bird; a harpy.
  8. A black person.
  9. The emblem of an eagle, a sign of military rank.
  10. The cry or call of a rooster or a cockerel, especially as heard at sunrise.

adjective

  1. Dark black, the color of a crow; crow-black.

verb

  1. To use a crowbar, wedge, or other implement to attempt to open a surface by leveraging force on the opposite end of the tool to pry off the connection between the two surfaces.
  2. To make the shrill sound characteristic of a rooster; to make a sound in this manner, either in gaiety, joy, pleasure, or defiance.
  3. To shout in exultation or defiance; to brag.
  4. To test the reed of a double reed instrument by placing the reed alone in the mouth and blowing it.

Etymology

From Middle English crowe, from Old English crāwe, from Proto-West Germanic *krāā, from Proto-Germanic *krēǭ (compare West Frisian krie, Dutch kraai, German Krähe), from *krēaną (“to crow”). See below. The verb is a back-formation from crowbar.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.