nightfowl

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From night +‎ fowl.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈnaɪt.faʊl/

Noun

nightfowl (plural nightfowl)

  1. Any of various birds active during the nighttime or associated with night; a nocturnal bird.
    Synonym: night bird
    • 1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Mariana:
      Upon the middle of the night,
      Waking she heard the nightfowl crow:
      The cock sung out an hour ere light
    • 1899, Rudyard Kipling, Letters of Marque, page 63:
      Now this wilderness was so utterly waste that not even the barking of a dog or the sound of a nightfowl could be heard.
    • 1903, Ridgwell Cullum, The Devil's Keg: The Story of the Foss River Ranch, page 171:
      He could see the ghostly outline of the distant peaks of the mountains, he could hear the haunting cries of nightfowl and coyote; but these things failed to interest him.
    • 1980, Poul Anderson, Conan the Rebel, page 165:
      An eagle? No, that could scarcely be; eagles were not nightfowl, nor would one descend this close to humans.
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