Definitions

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

  • adjective Having a bill in which the tips of the mandibles cross. Used of a bird.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the Metagnatha.
  • In ornithology, having the tips of the mandibles crossed: as, the metagnathous bill of the red crossbill, Loxia curvirostra. See quotation under epignathous.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Cross-billed; -- said of certain birds, as the crossbill.

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

  • adjective zoology having the mandibles crossing at the tip of the bill, as in the crossbill

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

meta- + -gnathous

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Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word metagnathous.

Examples

  • Because I want a sandwich. metagnathous: Bageant will never become mainstream because he tells the raw truth in paragraphs like that one.

    MetaFilter Projects 2009

  • PS The cappuccino at European airports is better. metagnathous: Bageant will never become mainstream because he tells the raw truth in paragraphs like that one.

    MetaFilter Projects 2009

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