cormorant

[ kawr-mer-uhnt ]
See synonyms for cormorant on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any of several voracious, totipalmate seabirds of the family Phalacrocoracidae, as Phalacrocorax carbo, of America, Europe, and Asia, having a long neck and a distensible pouch under the bill for holding captured fish, used in China for catching fish.

  2. a greedy person.

Origin of cormorant

1
1300–50; Middle English cormera(u)nt<Middle French cormorant,Old French cormareng<Late Latin corvus marīnus sea-raven. See corbel, marine

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How to use cormorant in a sentence

  • Four or five cormorants left a tree on the American bank and swooped out over our heads, dark shapes against the purple sky.

    My Night on the Border | Bryan Curtis | May 25, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • It was an immense flight of gulls, seamews, and cormorants; a vast multitude of affrighted sea birds.

    Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
  • We passed vast numbers of the Florida cormorants—a small species, which breeds in the mangrove islets.

    In the Wilds of Florida | W.H.G. Kingston
  • The great skill of this bird has been made use of, and tame Cormorants are used in China to obtain fish for their masters.

    On the Seashore | R. Cadwallader Smith
  • These cormorants are in flocks of forty and fifty, and the owner in a small canoe travels about with them.

    The Life of Gordon, Volume I | Demetrius Charles Boulger
  • He was not more than the boat's length distant when he dived suddenly and the cormorants flapped aloft.

    The Pillar of Light | Louis Tracy

British Dictionary definitions for cormorant

cormorant

/ (ˈkɔːmərənt) /


noun
  1. any aquatic bird of the family Phalacrocoracidae, of coastal and inland waters, having a dark plumage, a long neck and body, and a slender hooked beak: order Pelecaniformes (pelicans, etc)

Origin of cormorant

1
C13: from Old French cormareng, from corp raven, from Latin corvus + -mareng of the sea, from Latin mare sea

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012