chewink

American  

[chi-wingk] / tʃɪˈwɪŋk /

noun

1. a towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, of eastern North America.

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Etymology

Origin of chewink

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95; imitative

Example Sentences

He will be led to find out that the chewink is a kind of finch and is so called because of its note, which is accented on the second syllable.

From Time Magazine Archive

Towhee, tow′hē, n. the chewink, ground-robin, or marsh-robin of the United States.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Climbing the loose-piled wall that hems   The road along the mill-pond's brink, From 'neath the arching barberry-stems,   My footstep scares the shy chewink.

From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by Lowell, James Russell

I did miss his voice in the morning chorus,—the one who lived in the grove was not much of a singer,—but I was glad to know the chewink, who was almost a stranger.

From A Bird-Lover in the West by Miller, Olive Thorne

It is not a bird that skulks and hides, like the catbird, the brown thrasher, the chat, or the chewink, and its nest is not concealed with the same art as theirs.

From Bird Stories from Burroughs Sketches of Bird Life Taken from the Works of John Burroughs by Fuertes, Louis Agassiz