Dictionary

carrier pigeon en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. A domestic pigeon which transports attached messages or very small parcels from the place where it is released to a familiar destination.
   • From the fishing basket on which he was sitting came the unusual sound of a ‘coo-coo,’ and another spy was caught. The supposed fisherman had been sending the enemy information by means of the carrier pigeons. 1914 December 11, The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, NSW, page 35, column 4:
   • Once on her window-sill Harmony found among the pigeons a carrier pigeon with a brass tube fastened to its leg. 1914, Mary Roberts Rinehart, chapter 25, in The Street of Seven Stars:
   • For the second time in four months, prison guards foiled an attempt to smuggle a cellphone into a prison by carrier pigeon. 2009 July 3, “Brazil: A Cellphone Carrier Is Thwarted”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Dec 2011:
   • Two days after the first U.S. bridgehead had been thrown back at Rapido (see p. 23), a U.S. carrier pigeon winged wearily into its home base in Italy. Clipped to its leg was this German sneer: "Herewith your message pigeon is returned. We have plenty to eat." 1944 February 7, “World Battlefronts: Men at War—The Bird”, in Time:
   • At length, after wheeling his toothpick slowly round and round in the air, as if it were a carrier pigeon just thrown up, he suddenly made a dart at the drawing, 1843, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in Martin Chuzzlewit:

Forms

Hyponyms

racer · racing pigeon

Relateds

English Carrier · king of the doos

Synonyms

homing pigeon · homer

Translations (28)

ko 전서구 (carrier pigeon) · hu postagalamb (carrier pigeon) · es paloma mensajera (carrier pigeon) · fi kirjekyyhky (carrier pigeon) · ru почто́вый го́лубь (carrier pigeon) · sh golub pismonoša (carrier pigeon) · gl pomba mensaxeira (carrier pigeon) · ar حَمامٌ زاجِلٌ (carrier pigeon) · ca colom missatger (carrier pigeon) · sv brevduva (carrier pigeon) · nl postduif (carrier pigeon) · ro porumbel călător (carrier pigeon) · fr pigeon voyageur (carrier pigeon) · ar حَمامَةٌ زاجِلة (carrier pigeon) · uk свійський голуб (carrier pigeon) · vi bồ câu đưa thư (carrier pigeon) · ro porumbel voiajor (carrier pigeon) · no brevdue (carrier pigeon) · cmn 信鴿 /信鸽 (carrier pigeon) · eo leterkolombo (carrier pigeon) · pl gołąb pocztowy (carrier pigeon) · da brevdue (carrier pigeon) · de Brieftaube (carrier pigeon) · it piccione viaggiatore (carrier pigeon) · af posduif (carrier pigeon) · ka საფოსტო მტრედი (carrier pigeon) · ja 伝書鳩 (carrier pigeon) · pt pombo-correio (carrier pigeon)