whistler

[ hwis-ler, wis- ]
See synonyms for whistler on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that whistles.

  2. something that makes a sound like a whistle: The windstorm was a 60-mile-an-hour whistler.

  1. any of various birds whose wings whistle in flight, especially the goldeneye.

  2. a large marmot, Marmota caligata, of mountainous northwestern North America, closely related to the woodchuck.

  3. a horse afflicted with whistling.

  4. Radio. a whistling sound heard on a radio, a type of interference caused by distant lightning.

Origin of whistler

1
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hwistlere.See whistle, -er1

Words Nearby whistler

Other definitions for Whistler (2 of 2)

Whistler
[ wis-ler, hwis- ]

noun
  1. James (Abbott) McNeill [muhk-neel], /məkˈnil/, 1834–1903, U.S. painter and etcher, in France and England after 1855.

Other words from Whistler

  • Whis·tle·ri·an [wis-leer-ee-uhn, hwis-], /wɪsˈlɪər i ən, ʰwɪs-/, adjective

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

How to use whistler in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for whistler (1 of 2)

whistler

/ (ˈwɪslə) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that whistles

  2. radio an atmospheric disturbance picked up by radio receivers, characterized by a whistling sound of decreasing pitch. It is caused by the electromagnetic radiation produced by lightning

  1. any of various birds having a whistling call, such as certain Australian flycatchers and the goldeneye: See also thickhead (def. 2)

  2. any of various North American marmots of the genus Marmota, esp M. caligata (hoary marmot)

  3. vet science a horse affected with an abnormal respiratory noise, resembling whistling

  4. informal a referee

British Dictionary definitions for Whistler (2 of 2)

Whistler

/ (ˈwɪslə) /


noun
  1. James Abbott McNeill. 1834–1903, US painter and etcher, living in Europe. He is best known for his sequence of nocturnes and his portraits

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