auk

[ awk ]

noun

1. any of several usually black-and-white diving birds of the family Alcidae, of northern seas, having webbed feet and small wings.

auk

/ ɔːk /

noun

1. any of various diving birds of the family Alcidae of northern oceans having a heavy body, short tail, narrow wings, and a black-and-white plumage: order Charadriiformes See also great auk razorbill auk
2. little auk or dovekie
   a small short-billed auk, Plautus alle, abundant in Arctic regions

Word History and Origins

Origin of auk¹

1665–75; < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse alka

Word History and Origins

Origin of auk¹

C17: from Old Norse ālka; related to Swedish alka, Danish alke

Example Sentences

The great auk is but a memory; the bittern booms more rarely in our eastern marshes; and now they tell me Brigadiers are extinct.

From Project Gutenberg

"You are already celebrated as the discoverer of the mammoth and the great auk," she persisted.

From Project Gutenberg

When that day comes, proprietary humbugs like Sanatogen will have become as extinct as the dodo and the great auk.

From Project Gutenberg

Paralyzed be th' boldness iv th' wolf, th' camel an' th' auk fled fr'm th' scene iv havoc, as is their wont.

From Project Gutenberg

Thirty years ago we knew as little of the ways of the ward boss as we knew of the megatherium or the great auk.

From Project Gutenberg