sea duck

American  

noun

1. any of various diving ducks, as the scaups, goldeneyes, scoters, and eiders, found principally on seas.

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sea duck British  

noun

1. any of various large diving ducks, such as the eider and the scoter, that occur along coasts

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Etymology

Origin of sea duck

First recorded in 1745–55

Example Sentences

Wanda Blackmore said her son was out sea duck hunting when he stumbled upon the 24-meter long, wooden ship that likely dates back to the 19th Century.

From BBC • Feb. 2, 2024

Surveying the water with his spotting telescope at the next beach, Bonomo discovers a Long-tailed Duck—an elegant sea duck with showy tail feathers—bobbing in the waves.

From Scientific American • Sep. 15, 2021

Though she can catch prey as large as a hare or a sea duck, her normal diet is small rodents, mainly lemmings.

From The Guardian • May 27, 2019

It boasts a three-mile-wide isthmus with lagoons on either side and is home to an endangered sea duck, Steller’s eider, as well as tundra swans, brown bears, foxes and other wildlife.

From Washington Post • Mar. 22, 2013

Coot, sea duck, loons, black duck, grebes, dotted the surface of the pond and in all the sandy shallows spawning alewives splashed and played-thousands of them.

From Old Plymouth Trails by Packard, Winthrop