brant

¹ American  

[brant] / brænt /

noun

plural

brants,

plural

brant

1. any of several species of small, dark-colored geese of the genus Branta, especially B. bernicla, breeding in high northern latitudes and migrating south in the autumn.

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Brant ² American  

[brant] / brænt /

noun

1. Joseph Thayendanegea, 1742–1807, Mohawk Indian chief who fought on the side of the British in the American Revolution.

2. a male given name.

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brant British  

/ brænt /

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): brent goose.  a small goose, Branta bernicla, that has a dark grey plumage and short neck and occurs in most northern coastal regions

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Etymology

Origin of brant

First recorded in 1535–45; short for brantgoose, brentgoose; akin to Old Norse brandgās, German Brandgans

Example Sentences

Teshekpuk Lake serves as molting area for one-fifth of the world’s Pacific black brant and calving grounds for tens of thousands of caribou each summer.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 25, 2020

In spring and fall, nearly all of the world’s population of emperor and Pacific black brant geese stops to devour the refuge’s eelgrass beds for sustenance.

From Washington Post • Oct. 15, 2017

As with black brant geese and polar bears, perhaps not enough.

From Scientific American • Feb. 7, 2014

In the second room 25 similarly arranged images from the series “On Any Given Day in Spring” take a quite different tack, capturing wide open beaches dotted with flocks of shorebirds called brant.

From New York Times • Oct. 11, 2012

"Pishnekuh!" cried Pau-Puk-Keewis, "Pishnekuh! my brothers!" said he, 200"Change me to a brant with plumage, With a shining neck and feathers, Make me large, and make me larger, Ten times larger than the others."

From The Song of Hiawatha An Epic Poem by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth