Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Sandpiper?

\Sand"pi`per\, n. 1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline game birds belonging to {Tringa}, {Actodromas}, {Ereunetes}, and various allied genera of the family {Tringid[ae]}. Note: The most important North American species are the pectoral sandpiper ({Tringa maculata}), called also {brownback}, {grass snipe}, and {jacksnipe}; the red-backed, or black-breasted, sandpiper, or dunlin ({T. alpina}); the purple sandpiper ({T. maritima}: the red-breasted sandpiper, or knot ({T. canutus}); the semipalmated sandpiper ({Ereunetes pusillus}); the spotted sandpiper, or teeter-tail ({Actitis macularia}); the buff-breasted sandpiper ({Tryngites subruficollis}), and the Bartramian sandpiper, or upland plover. See under {Upland}. Among the European species are the dunlin, the knot, the ruff, the sanderling, and the common sandpiper ({Actitis, or Tringoides, hypoleucus}), called also {fiddler}, {peeper}, {pleeps}, {weet-weet}, and {summer snipe}. Some of the small plovers and tattlers are also called sandpipers. 2. (Zo["o]l.) A small lamprey eel; the pride. {Curlew sandpiper}. See under {Curlew}. {Stilt sandpiper}. See under {Stilt}.