chimney swift


noun
  1. an American swift, Chateura pelagica, which often builds its nest in an unused chimney.

Origin of chimney swift

1
First recorded in 1840–50

Words Nearby chimney swift

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use chimney swift in a sentence

  • The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name.

    Bird Neighbors | Neltje Blanchan
  • The chimney swift has learned to nest in chimneys since the Pilgrims landed; for there were no chimneys before that time.

    The Woodpeckers | Fannie Hardy Eckstorm
  • The smooth chimney swift flashes above the barn and is gone.

    Minstrel Weather | Marian Storm
  • The eave swallow and barn swallow and the chimney swift all belie their names in the few wild haunts still uninvaded by man.

    The Log of the Sun | William Beebe
  • On the wing the chimney swift looks like an athlete stripped for the race.

British Dictionary definitions for chimney swift

chimney swift

noun
  1. a North American swift, Chaetura pelagica, that nests in chimneys and similar hollows

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