Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Ibis   /ˈaɪbəs/   Listen
noun
Ibis  n.  (Zool.) Any bird of the genus Ibis and several allied genera, of the family Ibidae, inhabiting both the Old World and the New. Numerous species are known. They are large, wading birds, having a long, curved beak, and feed largely on reptiles. Note: The sacred ibis of the ancient Egyptians (Ibis aethiopica) has the head and neck black, without feathers. The plumage of the body and wings is white, except the tertiaries, which are lengthened and form a dark purple plume. In ancient times this bird was extensively domesticated in Egypt, but it is now seldom seen so far north. The glossy ibis (Plegadis autumnalis), which is widely distributed both in the Old World and the New, has the head and neck feathered, except between the eyes and bill; the scarlet ibis (Guara rubra) and the white ibis (Guara alba) inhabit the West Indies and South America, and are rarely found in the United States. The wood ibis (Tantalus loculator) of America belongs to the Stork family (Ciconidae). See Wood ibis.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Ibis" Quotes from Famous Books



... Flocks of white gulls were flying overhead, uttering their well- known cry, and sandpipers coursed along the edge of the water. Here and there lonely wading-birds were stalking about; one of these, the Curiaca (Ibis melanopis), flew up with a low cackling noise, and was soon joined by a unicorn bird (Palamedea cornuta), which I startled up from amidst the bushes, whose harsh screams, resembling the bray of a jackass, but shriller, disturbed unpleasantly the solitude of the place. ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... shaded by a tree, we found a drove of the speckled beauties at home, dozens of them a foot long, each moving lazily a little, their black backs relieved by their colored fins. They must have seen us, but at first they showed no desire for a closer acquaintance. To the red ibis and the white miller and the brown hackle and the gray fly they were alike indifferent. Perhaps the love for made flies is an artificial taste and has to be cultivated. These at any rate were uncivilized -trout, and it was only when we took the advice of the young McGregor and baited ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... Roman world of that day than the genuine Greek national poetry, and which, if they were not quite so venerable as the Iliad, possessed at any rate an age sufficiently respectable to pass as classics with schoolmasters. The love-poems of Euphorion, the "Causes" of Callimachus and his "Ibis," the comically obscure "Alexandra" of Lycophron contained in rich abundance rare vocables (-glossae-) suitable for being extracted and interpreted, sentences laboriously involved and difficult of analysis, prolix digressions full of mystic combinations of antiquated myths, and generally ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... was a knock one day at the door of our Ibis old mother, and behold, the boatman and Christine stepped into the room. She had come on a visit to spend a day: a carriage had to come from the Herning Inn to the next village, and she had taken the ...
— What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales • Hans Christian Andersen

... went to the fire, and sat down on a seat—semi-stool, semi-cushion. The ladies were round her; none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? They never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality—so unlike a school-girl? Decidedly not. It was strange, it was unusual. What was strange must be wrong; ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com