Dictionary

greylag en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɹeɪlæɡ/

Etymology

From grey (“colour”) + lag (“old name for a goose, derived from the call used to move such animals along”).

Meanings

1. A large grey European goose, Anser anser, with pink legs and dull orange beak.
   • Earlier, 250 more had flown to Rattray beach, nearly all pinkfeet although I saw four greylags and heard others. 2012, Adam Watson, Ian Francis, Birds in North-East Scotland Then and Now, page 11:
   • Since the war, migrant greylags have virtually deserted the Duddon estuary, so it is a source of great satisfaction that the WAGBI greylags have taken to roosting on the sands in mid-winter, flighting to and from the reserve. 1967, Jeffery G. Harrison, A Wealth of Wildfowl, page 150:
   • Greylags used to concentrate on British estuaries, eating roots of rushes and sedges, as they do in other parts of their range. 2010, M. Owen, “Greylag Goose”, in Peter Lack, editor, The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland, page 74:

Forms

Relateds

Anser

Synonyms

greylag goose (Anser anser)