chough

American  

[chuhf] / tʃʌf /

noun

1. any of several crowlike Old World birds, especially Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, of Europe.

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chough British  

/ tʃʌf /

noun

1. a large black passerine bird, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, of parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a long downward-curving red bill: family Corvidae (crows)

2. a smaller related bird, Pyrrhocorax graculus, with a shorter yellow bill

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Etymology

Origin of chough

1275–1325; Middle English choghe; akin to Old English cēo, Dutch kauw, Danish kaa

Example Sentences

She found it easier this time, and there was the chough, with her in her own world, perching on a branch that hung low over the pavement.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

But of the chough in captivity or as a domesticated bird we know little now, as no records have been preserved.

From Birds in Town and Village by Hudson, W. H. (William Henry)

An old Cornish tradition declares that Arthur's mighty spirit passed into a Cornish chough, and in the guise of that beautiful crow with the scarlet beak, still haunts the ruins of his birthplace.

From A West Country Pilgrimage by Phillpots, Eden

There be that can rule Naples As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate 255 As amply and unnecessarily As this Gonzalo; I myself could make A chough of as deep chat.

From The Tempest The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by Glover, John, librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge

And my wife will be jocund, feat, compt, neat, quaint, dainty, trim, tricked up, brisk, smirk, and smug, even as a pretty little Cornish chough.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 by Motteux, Peter Anthony