Dictionary

whippoorwill en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʍɪp.ɚˌwɪl/ (General-American)
• /ˈwɪp.ɚˌwɪl/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈwɪp.əˌwɪl/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Imitative of its note.

Meanings

1. A nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus), a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call.
   • “Seems like I heard a whippoorwill callinʼ, and I thought to myself, Go on away from here, weʼll whip ole Will when we find him.” 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55:
2. The distinctive call of the above bird.
   • For I'm sure 'tis a bird that now sings 'Whippoorwill, Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill!' 1857, Grace Greenwood, The Little Pilgrim, page 91:
   • Somewhere in the darkness a few cold-sounding frogs lamented the lost summer, and the bird which the Chippewa called muck-a-wiss sang whippoorwill. 1959, Thomas William Duncan, Big River, Big Man:
   • From across the road a bird sang 'Whippoorwill, whippoorwill!' 2023 December 12, Timothy C. Baker, Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories, MIT Press, →ISBN:
   • The bird sang his whippoorwills all night.

Forms

Deriveds

eastern whippoorwill · Mexican whippoorwill

Relateds

chuck-will's-widow · nightjar

Translations (15)

it succiacapre (bird) · fr bois-pourri (bird) · it caprimulgo (bird) · fi amerikankehrääjä (bird) · chr ᏩᎫᎵ (bird) · nv hoshdódii (bird) · bg американски козодой (bird) · pl lelkowiec (bird) · es cuerporruín (bird) · chr ᏍᏆᎴᏩᎵ (bird) · ro caprimulg (bird) · la caprimulgus (bird) · de Schwarzkehl-Nachtschwalbe (bird) · sv skriknattskärra (bird) · unm wèkulis (bird)