bevy en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ˈbɛvi/
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From Middle English bevey, of uncertain origin, possibly Anglo-Norman.
Meanings
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(collective) A group of animals, especially quail, roe deer or other game.
The harts and hinds in their herds, the boars in their singulars, the skulls of foxes, the richesses of martens, the bevies of roes, the cetes of badgers and the routs of wolves - all came to him more or less as something which you either skinned or flayed and then took home to cook.
1958, T.H. White, The Once and Future King:Among several "Educational Leaflets" received from the American National Association of Audubon Societies, reference may be made to the so-called Virginian quail, or "Bob White" (Colinus virginianus), a bevy of which forms the subject of the illustration here reproduced.
1911, Sir Norman Lockyer, Nature, volume 87, Macmillan Journals Limited:A bevy of birds were flushed by horsemen.
1892, The Fanciers' Journal, volume 8, page 101:The pond was another favourite place to visit. Moorhens strutted from the neighbouring bushes, and a bevy of Muscovy ducks, a study in black, white and red, waddled from the farmyard hard by to enjoy a refreshing splash.
1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 217:It is true that this habit of running affords many shots on the ground, and often places the whole bevy directly under fire; but no true sportsman would thus ingloriously fill his bag by 'potting' a bevy of such noble game birds.
1877, Elliot Coues, Birds of the North-West:But a bevy of hinds seem to try to shelter a distressed one, and by running on with her in a bunch to puzzle the hounds
1906 March 14, “Hind-hunting”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 85, page 207:
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(collective) A group, especially a large group, and especially a group of attractive girls or women.
The same messenger who summoned the whole bevy of renegades, Dover, Peterborough, Murray, Sunderland, and Mulgrave, could just as easily have summoned Clarendon.
1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 365:The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on.
1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), pages 22–23:When the younger Adams laid out an ambitious program of internal improvements in his First Annual Message to Congress in December 1825—including not just a bevy of new roads and canals but also a national university, a naval academy, an astronomical observatory, and a new Department of the Interior to oversee all these projects—Jefferson was beside himself. He drafted a remonstrance against this proposed program, […]
2022, Dennis C. Rasmussen, Fears of a Setting Sun, page 189:In the midſt of all this buſtle, I was ſtruck with the appearance of a large bevy of beauties and women of the firſt fashion, who with all the perfect confidence of good breeding, inſhrined themſelves in the ſeveral temples dedicated to the Cyprian Venus[.]
1755, Adam Fitz-Adam, The World, number CXXI, London, page 789:One of the lords of Argouges, when out hunting one day, met a bevy of twenty ladies of rare beauty, all mounted on palfreys white as the driven snow.
1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 485:For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:Thursday's session makes AT&T the latest high-profile company to meet with Trump after the president-elect's series of job-related talks with firms such as Softbank, Carrier and a bevy of tech companies including Google, Facebook and Apple.
2017 January 12, Brian Fung, “Why AT&T’s top execs visited Trump Tower”, in The Washington Post:[H]e'd always have this drawer full of random crap. Chinese yo-yos, candy, handcuffs—just a bevy of stuff—and I'd usually convince him to give me some of it. I wasn't pushy, but he had TONs of it, so come on, […]
2011, Ryan Zimmerman, I was a Bad Kid - The True Tales of a Deceptive Child, →ISBN, page 3:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| bevies | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Translations (41)
cs skupina (group) · it stormo (group of birds) · nl zwerm (group of birds) · cs houf (group) · nl troep (group) · es bandada (group of birds) · tr sürü (group) · hu csoport (group) · hy տարմ (group of birds) · oc bandada (group of birds) · fr vol (group of birds) · de Schar (group) · de Schar (group of birds) · fi parvi (group of birds) · nl vlucht (group of birds) · hu (egy) sor (group) · ru ста́йка (group) · nl schare (group of birds) · hy երամ (group of birds) · bg ято (group of birds) · hu sokaság (group) · ro stol (group of birds) · es grupo (group) · es colección (group) · it volata (group of birds) · cs hejno (group of birds) · oc banda (group of birds) · nl schare (group) · sv flock (group of birds) · ru ста́я (group of birds) · nl hoop (group) · hu csapat (group) · hu csapat (group of birds) · hu tömeg (group) · pt bando (group of birds) · tr kuş sürüsü (group of birds) · fr passée (group of birds) · de Schwarm (group of birds) · it passo (group of birds) · ja 群れ (group of birds) · cmn 群 (group of birds)