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nuthatches

 - 4 dictionary results

nut⋅hatch

  [nuht-hach]
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–noun
any of numerous small, short-tailed, sharp-beaked birds of the family Sittidae that creep on trees and feed on small nuts and insects.
Origin:
1300–50; ME notehache, nuthagge, nuthak, lit., nut hacker. See nut, hack 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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nut·hatch   (nŭt'hāch')   
n.  Any of several small, short-tailed birds of the family Sittidae, having a long sharp bill and known for climbing down trees headfirst. Also called nutcracker.

[Middle English notehache : note, nut; see nut + hache, hatchet (from Old French, perhaps of Germanic origin, from its habit of wedging nuts in bark and hacking them open).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
nuthouse

and nut factory; nut-foundry; nuthatch
  1. n.
    an insane asylum. : The teacher spent three years in the nuthouse. , When did you get out of the nut factory?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

nuthatch 
c.1340, probably is so called from its habit of breaking open and eating nuts; from nut + second element related to hack (v.) and hatchet.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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