Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several small hawks that have short, broad wings and prey on sparrows and other small birds, especially the Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of several small hawks which prey on sparrows and other small birds.
- noun In silver-working, a small anvil with two horns (one flat-sided and pyramidal, the other conical in form), held between the knees of the workman, for use in flanging, making bezels, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A species of small
falcon ,Falco sparverius , that preys on grasshoppers and small mammals. - noun A small, short-winged
European hawk ,Accipiter nisus , that preys on smaller birds.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small North American falcon
- noun small hawk of Eurasia and northern Africa
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc ("sparrow-hawk"), equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg ("sparrowhawk"), Swedish sparvhök ("sparrowhawk"), Icelandic sparrhaukur ("sparrowhawk").
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