owl

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of various often nocturnal birds of prey of the order Strigiformes, having hooked and feathered talons, large heads with short hooked beaks, large eyes set forward, and fluffy plumage that allows for almost noiseless flight.
• noun Any of several breeds of domestic pigeons having a very short beak somewhat like that of an owl and often a frill of feathers on the chest.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A dialectal form of wool.
• noun Sometimes applied to the barn-owl, Strix protincola, which is white below and when in flight seems almost entirely white. See cut at barn-owl.
• To carry on a contraband or unlawful trade at night or in secrecy; skulk about with contraband goods; smuggle; especially, to carry wool or sheep out of the country, at one time an offense at law.
• noun A raptorial nocturnal bird of prey of the family Strigidæ
• noun A variety of the domestic pigeon: so called from its owl-like physiognomy.
• noun A person whose pleasure or business it is to be up or about much at night.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) Any species of raptorial birds of the family Strigidæ. They have large eyes and ears, and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye. They are mostly nocturnal in their habits.
• noun (Zoöl.) A variety of the domestic pigeon.
• noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of South American nocturnal monkeys of the genus Nyctipithecus. They have very large eyes. Called also durukuli.
• noun (Zoöl.) a very large moth (Erebus strix). The expanse of its wings is over ten inches.
• noun (Zoöl.) the kakapo.
• noun (Zoöl.) the lumpfish.
• noun a cant name for certain railway trains whose run is in the nighttime.
• intransitive verb Prov. Eng. To pry about; to prowl.
• intransitive verb obsolete To carry wool or sheep out of England.
• intransitive verb engraving Hence, to carry on any contraband trade.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any of various birds of prey of the order Strigiformes that are primarily nocturnal and have forward-looking, binocular vision, limited eye movement, and good hearing.
• noun A person seen as having owl-like characteristics, especially appearing wise or serious, or being nocturnally active.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun nocturnal bird of prey with hawk-like beak and claws and large head with front-facing eyes