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Wren   /rɛn/   Listen
noun
Wren  n.  
1.
(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small singing birds belonging to Troglodytes and numerous allied of the family Troglodytidae. Note: Among the species best known are the house wren (Troglodytes aedon) common in both Europe and America, and the American winter wren (Troglodytes hiemalis). See also Cactus wren, Marsh wren, and Rock wren, under Cactus, Marsh, and Rock.
2.
(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small singing birds more or less resembling the true wrens in size and habits. Note: Among these are several species of European warblers; as, the reed wren (see Reed warbler (a), under Reed), the sedge wren (see Sedge warbler, under Sedge), the willow wren (see Willow warbler, under Willow), the golden-crested wren, and the ruby-crowned wren (see Kinglet).
Ant wren, any one of numerous South American birds of the family Formicaridae, allied to the ant thrushes.
Blue wren, a small Australian singing bird (Malurus cyaneus), the male of which in the breeding season is bright blue. Called also superb warbler.
Emu wren. See in the Vocabulary.
Wren babbler, any one of numerous species of small timaline birds belonging to Alcippe, Stachyris, Timalia, and several allied genera. These birds are common in Southern Asia and the East Indies.
Wren tit. See Ground wren, under Ground.
Wren warbler, any one of several species of small Asiatic and African singing birds belonging to Prinia and allied genera. These birds are closely allied to the tailor birds, and build their nests in a similar manner. See also Pincpinc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wren" Quotes from Famous Books



... guess what a snare for an artist's feet lay in those few words? How could Trenholme realize that "a pair of iron gates" would prove to be an almost perfect example of Christopher Wren's genius as a designer of wrought iron? Trenholme's eyes sparkled when he beheld this prize, with its acanthus leaves and roses beaten out with wonderful freedom and beauty of curve. A careful drawing was the result. Another result, uncounted by him, but of singular importance in its outcome ...
— The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley • Louis Tracy

... make an ardent silver, with lights of blue and faint fresh rose; and over them the beautiful fold of her full eyebrow on the eyelid like a bending upper heaven. Those winter mornings are divine. They move on noiselessly. The earth is still, as if awaiting. A wren warbles, and flits through the lank drenched brambles; hill-side opens green; elsewhere is mist, everywhere expectancy. They bear the veiled sun like a sangreal aloft to the wavy ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... pretty pass, indeed, when the commuters are to be dispossessed in this way by a lot of birds, orioles and tomtits and yellow-bellied nuthatches. Some of these days a wren will take it into its head to build a nest on the railroad track and we'll all have to walk to town. Or a chicken hawk will settle in our icebox and we'll ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley

... a pair of house wrens that had a nest in a honeysuckle on her front porch. On looking out of the window, she beheld this little comedy,—comedy from her point of view, but no doubt grim tragedy from the point of view of the wrens: a cowbird with a wren's egg in its beak running rapidly along the walk, with the outraged wrens forming a procession behind it, screaming, scolding, and gesticulating as only these voluble little birds can. The cowbird had probably been surprised in the act of ...
— Bird Stories from Burroughs - Sketches of Bird Life Taken from the Works of John Burroughs • John Burroughs

... wren thy myrtles shed On gentlest Otway's infant head, To him thy cell was shown; And while he sung the female heart, With youth's soft notes unspoiled by art, Thy ...
— Highways & Byways in Sussex • E.V. Lucas


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