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Daw   /dɔ/   Listen
Daw

noun
1.
Common black-and-grey Eurasian bird noted for thievery.  Synonyms: Corvus monedula, jackdaw.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Daw" Quotes from Famous Books



... did tell me that if I liked to assume the plumes of a daw, it was no affair of his, and kindly promised to respect my confidences—at which I was greatly relieved. Indeed, throughout the evening, nothing could exceed his affability, for, being seated on the other side of the hostess, opposite myself, he showed me the greatest honour and ...
— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey

... still and sleepit sound, Till the day began to daw; And kindly to him she did say, "It is ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various

... and the advice is still often to be repeated, to acquire stock of his own, and forbear to touch whatever writings the Palatine Apollo has received: lest, if it chance that the flock of birds should some time or other come to demand their feathers, he, like the daw stripped of his stolen colors, be exposed to ridicule. What do you yourself undertake? What thyme are you busy hovering about? Your genius is not small, is not uncultivated nor inelegantly rough. Whether ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace

... own ingenuity. Harley had fallen desperately in love with Marguerite Andrews, and Marguerite Andrews had fallen in love with Stuart Harley, and Harley couldn't find her. She eluded his every effort, and he began to doubt that he had drawn her from real life, after all. She had become a Marjorie Daw to him, and the notion that he must go through life cherishing a hopeless passion was distracting to him. His book was the greatest of his successes, which was an additional cause of discomfort to him, since, knowing ...
— A Rebellious Heroine • John Kendrick Bangs

... The Daw darted at the sparks and tried to swallow some of them, but his mouth being burned by the attempt, he ran away exclaiming, "Ah, the Glowworm is a ...
— The Junior Classics, Volume 1 • Willam Patten

... took an interest in my pursuit; one of the best chambers in the house was given up to me, and the young men took me on long rambles in the neighbouring forests. I saw very little hard work going forward. Everyone rose with the daw, and went down to the river to bathe; then came the never-failing cup of rich and strong coffee, after which all proceeded to their avocations. At this time, nothing was being done at the plantations; the cacao and tobacco crops were not ripe; weeding time was over; and the only ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... spruce grey-headed bird. Perronel said it would be presumption in a waiting-woman, but Ambrose declared that at Chelsea there were all manner of beasts and birds, beloved by the children and by their father himself, and that he believed the daw would be welcome. At any rate, if the lady of the house objected to it, it could return with ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... bade adieu; Far less would listen to his prayer, To leave behind the helpless Clare. Down to the Tweed his band he drew, And muttered, as the flood they view, "The pheasant in the falcon's claw, He scarce will yield to please a daw: Lord Angus may the Abbot awe, So Clare shall bide with me." Then on that dangerous ford, and deep, Where to the Tweed Leat's eddies creep, He ventured desperately: And not a moment will he bide, Till squire, or groom, before him ride; Headmost of all he stems the ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... little girl over the way. She is swinging in the hammock at this moment. It is to me compensation for many of the ills of life to see her now and then put out a small kid boot, which fits like a glove, and set herself going. Who is she, and what is her name? Her name is Daw. Only daughter if Mr. Richard W. Daw, ex-colonel and banker. Mother dead. One brother at Harvard, elder brother killed at the battle of Fair Oaks, ten years ago. Old, rich family, the Daws. This is the homestead, where father and daughter pass eight months of the twelve; the rest ...
— Marjorie Daw • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... Who ever leaves sweete home, where meane estate In safe assurance, without strife or hate, Findes all things needfull for contentment meeke, And will to Court for shadowes vaine to seeke, Or hope to gaine, himselfe will a daw trie: That curse God send unto ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church

... from the rookery above. Sometimes there was an overthrown nest like a sack of twigs turned out on the turf, such as the hedgers rake together after fagoting. Looking up into the trees on a summer's day not a bird could be seen, till suddenly there was a quick 'jack-jack' above, as a daw started from his hole or from where the great boughs joined the trunk. The squire's path went down the hollow till it deepened into a thinly wooded coomb, through which ran the streamlet coming from the wheat-fields under ...
— Field and Hedgerow • Richard Jefferies

... Sweirness, at the second bidding, Came like a sow out of a midding, Full sleepy was his grunyie:[133] Mony swear bumbard belly huddroun,[134] Mony slut, daw, and sleepy duddroun, Him servit aye with sonnyie;[135] He drew them furth intill a chain, And Belial with a bridle rein Ever lashed them on the lunyie:[136] In Daunce they were so slaw of feet, They gave them in the fire a heat, And made ...
— English Satires • Various

... Smith with-in? Old Mother Goose One, two, buckle my shoe Jack Sprat could eat no fat See a pin and pick it up Leg over leg There was an old wo-man who liv-ed in a shoe There was an old woman We are all in the dumps Hot cross buns, hot cross buns See, saw, Mar-ge-ry Daw Ro-bin and Rich-ard are two pret-ty men Little Nancy Etticote See saw, sacradown, sacradown There was a Piper had a Cow Sing a song of six-pence, a pock-et full of Rye A diller, a dollar Bye, baby bumpkin As I was going ...
— Aunt Kitty's Stories • Various

... Daw, Jenny shall have a new master, She shall have but a penny a day, Because she ...
— Twilight Stories • Various

... this the old Jack-daw again came carrying something that shone like an evening star—a little spike of gold with a burning emerald set in the end of it. "And what do you think of that?" said ...
— The Blue Moon • Laurence Housman

... eatable, are Ganets, Ospray (Plynyes Haliaeetos.) Amongst which, Iacke-Daw (the second slaunder of our Countrie) shall passe for companie, as frequenting their haunt, though not their diet: I meane not the common Daw, but one peculiar to Cornwall, and therethrough termed a Cornish Chough: his bil is sharpe, long, and red, his legs of the ...
— The Survey of Cornwall • Richard Carew

... was laid in the straw like Margery Daw, and driven along in the dark ever so many miles to the Court, where King Padella had now arrived, having vanquished all his enemies, murdered most of them, and brought some of the richest into captivity with him for the purpose of ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray

... memory. She indeed accused me unjustly when she said I had stolen my poem ready made; but as I had, like most premature poets, copied all the words and ideas of which my verses consisted, she was so far right. I made one or two faint attempts at verse after I had undergone this sort of daw-plucking at the hands of the apothecary's wife, but some friend or other always advised me to put my verses into the fire; and, like Dorax in the play, I submitted, thought with a swelling heart." These lines, and another short piece "On the Setting Sun," were lately found ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... snakes from out the river, Bones of toad and sea-calf's liver; Swine's flesh fatten'd on her brood, Wolf's tooth, hare's foot, weasel's blood. Skull of ape and fierce baboon, And panther spotted like the moon; Feathers of the horned owl, Daw, pie, and other fatal fowl. Fruit from fig-tree never sown, Seed from cypress never grown. All within the mess I cast, Stir the ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... "I will tell as best I can remember, I was born eighty-eight years ago in Manchester, Ky. under a master by the name of Daw White. he was southern republican and was elected as congressman by that party from Manchester, Ky. He was the son of Hugh White, the original founder of Whitesberg, Ky. Master White was good to the slaves, he fed us well ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Kentucky Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... when thou wilt, and only gibberest and chatterest for fear thou art sent to work? Come, thou lazy rascal! thou shalt have the advantage of the ladder to ascend by, though thou needest it no more than a daw to ascend the steeple of the Cathedral of St. Sophia. [Footnote: Now the chief mosque of the Ottoman capital.] Come along then," he said, putting a ladder down the trap-door, "and put me not to the ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... vermin tippit, (give me by my cussen Harry, who keeps kumpany with me on hot-dinner days), also my tuskin bonnit, parrersole, and blacbag; and i takes mysef orf to South-street, but what was my felines, wen, on wringing the belle, a boy anser'd the daw, with two roes of brarse beeds ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari. Vol. 1, July 31, 1841 • Various

... often indirectly, by the most living souls past and present that have flitted near them? Can we think of a man or woman who grips us firmly, at the thought of whom we kindle when we are alone in our honest daw's plumes, with none to admire or shrug his shoulders, can we think of one such, the secret of whose power does not lie in the charm of his or her personality—that is to say, in the wideness of his or her sympathy with, and therefore life in ...
— Essays on Life, Art and Science • Samuel Butler

... Jack," said Maggot, "that I seed a daw's nest here the last time I come along, so lev us go an' ...
— Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines • R.M. Ballantyne

... to show his strength or weaknesses in the manner of his personal adornment. This will lead to all sorts of vain exhibitions until it will be with extreme difficulty that the public will be able to differentiate between a genuine peacock and an upstart jack-daw, masquerading in a merry widow hat. Then will come the crowning misdemeanor in men's clothes which, for want of a better term let us call pants—a pair of bags sewed together at the top, and designed for no other purpose than to conceal from the world the character and quality of ...
— The Autobiography of Methuselah • John Kendrick Bangs

... ever seen any of Shakespeare's plays, and he said no. She asked him if he would like to see one. He said sure—he'd try anything once. She invited him to go to see "Hamlet" with her, and he said he was game. Lest his sensitive feelings be hurt by finding himself a humble daw among the peacocks of the rich, gay world, she bought seats in the balcony and wore ...
— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin

... 'See-Saw; Margery Daw,' we heard a rollicking shout, As the swing boats hurtled over our heads to the tune of the roundabout; And 'Little Boy Blue, come blow up your horn,' we heard the showmen cry, And 'Dickery Dock, I'm as good as a clock,' ...
— Giant Hours With Poet Preachers • William L. Stidger

... do have rather a nice collection; but you haven't seen the best of all. We expect her every minute; and Margery Daw is to let us know the minute she lights on the island," replied Peter, with ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott

... unenlightened the generation was in which Winthrop wrote. Imagine a time when Mr. Henry James, Jr., and Mr. W. D. Howells had not been heard of; when Bret Harte was still hidden below the horizon of the far West; when no one suspected that a poet named Aldrich would ever write a story called "Marjorie Daw"; when, in England, "Adam Bede" and his successors were unborn;—a time of antiquity so remote, in short, that the mere possibility of a discussion upon the relative merit of the ideal and the realistic methods of fiction was ...
— Confessions and Criticisms • Julian Hawthorne

... the part of the mass between Epistle and Gospel. . . . . At the Placebo We may not forgo The chanting of the daw The stork also, That maketh her nest In chimnies to rest. . . . . The ostrich that will eat A horseshoe so great, In the stead of meat, Such fervent heat His stomach doth gnaw. He cannot well fly Nor sing tunably. . . ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... then, miserable ant, and spie Thy fatal foes, for breaking of their law, Hov'ring above thee: Madam MARGARET PIE: And her fierce servant, meagre Sir JOHN DAW: Thy self and storehouse now they do store up, And thy whole harvest too ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace

... as here above, the raven, daw, Vulture, and divers other birds of air, All from the turbid water seek to draw The names, which in their sight appear most fair; Even thus below, pimps, flatterers, men of straw, Buffoons, informers, minions, all who there Flourish in courts, and in far better guise And better ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... any rich upstart and have no redress. A second shepherd appears with another grumble: 'We sely wedmen dre mekyll wo.' Some men, indeed, have been known to desire two wives or even three, but most would sooner have none at all. Whereupon enters Daw, a third shepherd, complaining of portents 'With mervels mo and mo.' 'Was never syn noe floode sich floodys seyn'; even 'I se shrewys pepe'—apparently a portentous omen. At this point Mak comes on the scene. He is a notorious ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... fou', we're nae that fou, [drunk] But just a drappie in our e'e; [droplet] The cock may craw, the day may daw, [crow, dawn] And aye we'll taste ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... DAW (Sir David), a rich, dunder-headed baronet of Monmouthshire, without wit, words, or worth, but believing himself somebody, and fancying himself a sharp fellow, because his servants laugh at his good sayings, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.

... Daw is confined to her bed on account of the recent injury she sustained when she fell from a chair to the floor. Mrs. Daw was attempting to swat a fly at hand and stood upon the chair to reach the intended victim. He ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... with his cow was the popular favorite. Above all the din of the race, the voice of the little Canadian could be heard screaming, "Mush daw! Mush daw!" as he plied his stick, and sometimes, "Herret, Jinnay! Herret, twa sacre petite broot!" In the height of the confusion, the jackass brayed. That was the final touch ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens

... 17th one of the hunters killed a bird of the Corvus genus and order of the pica & about the size of a jack-daw with a remarkable long tale. beautifully variagated. it note is not disagreeable though loudit is twait twait twait, ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... no that fou, But just a drappie in our ee: The cock may craw, the day may daw, And aye we'll ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various

... as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal:—You have no stomach, signior; ...
— Much Ado About Nothing • William Shakespeare [Knight edition]

... deeper mouth; Between two blades, which bears the better temper: Between two horses, which doth bear him best; Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye; I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment: But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. ...
— King Henry VI, First Part • William Shakespeare [Aldus edition]

... Regulations affecting Building Operations in the administrative County of London, compiled by Ellis Marsland; Annotated By-Laws as to House Drainage, &c., by Jensen; Metropolitan Sanitation, by Herbert Daw. ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various



Words linked to "Daw" :   jackdaw, corvine bird, Corvus monedula, genus Corvus, Corvus



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