vulture

[ vuhl-cher ]

noun

1. any of several large, primarily carrion-eating Old World birds of prey of the family Accipitridae, often having a naked head and less powerful feet than those of the related hawks and eagles.
2. any of several superficially similar New World birds of the family Cathartidae, as the turkey vulture.
3. a person or thing that preys, especially greedily or unscrupulously:

   That vulture would sell out his best friend.

vulture

/ ˈvʌltʃə /

noun

1. See griffon, lammergeier
   any of various very large diurnal birds of prey of the genera Neophron, Gyps, Gypaetus, etc, of Africa, Asia, and warm parts of Europe, typically having broad wings and soaring flight and feeding on carrion: family Accipitridae (hawks) See also griffon 1 lammergeier
2. See turkey buzzard, condor
   any similar bird of the family Cathartidae of North, Central, and South America See also condor turkey buzzard
3. a person or thing that preys greedily and ruthlessly on others, esp the helpless

Derived Forms

• ˈvulture-ˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• vulture·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of vulture¹

1325–75; Middle English < Latin vultur

Word History and Origins

Origin of vulture¹

C14: from Old French voltour, from Latin vultur; perhaps related to Latin vellere to pluck, tear

Example Sentences

There were still bodies in the cornfields and in mud houses being chewed over by vultures.

From ProPublica

Nearly as soon as national relevance is sniffed, major conferences begin to circle a lesser-known program and its staff like vultures, poaching coaches and sometimes entire teams.

From FiveThirtyEight

In the mid-1970s, ZZ Top staged the Worldwide Texas Tour, performing on a Texas-shaped stage home to wagon wheels, corral fences, cactuses and live animals including rattlesnakes, vultures, a longhorn and buffalo.

From Washington Post

“It was like vultures swarming the gas pump, just driving around in circles checking all the pumps,” said Alfonso Forte, a clerk at a Circle K north of Charlotte.

From Washington Post

We did one, and it’s another instance where we’re just like vultures trying to make a quick buck and profit off a culture we don’t have anything to do with.

From Digiday

Vulture wrote a helpful-ish explainer about how to make sure you see it.

From The Daily Beast

On Buzzfeed, Vulture, Twitter, and in our hearts, these people are celebrated.

From The Daily Beast

Vulture, too, noticed her “effortless, self-deprecating charm.”

From The Daily Beast

Specifically, it happened on October 15, when the series aired its fifth episode, “The Vulture.”

From The Daily Beast

Vulture Shia LaBeouf responds to Jim Carrey's Golden Globes attack.

From The Daily Beast

Ask the disappointed vulture and the mouth of the muttering earth to tell you, gentlemen passengers!

From Project Gutenberg

This, with contemptuous indignation, we fling back into their face, as a scorpion to a vulture.

From Project Gutenberg

As the Vulture was of too large a draught to proceed higher, the troops were placed on board the steamers Pluto and Corsair.

From Project Gutenberg

Yellow Vulture has seen the taunts calling the red warriors "women with the hearts of deer."

From Project Gutenberg

Very few birds probably ascend to a height of two thousand feet in the air, the vulture tribe excepted.

From Project Gutenberg