bobolink

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English

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A male bobolink in breeding plumage

Etymology

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Imitative of its song. Compare Bob Lincoln.

Noun

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bobolink (plural bobolinks)

  1. An American migratory songbird, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, resembling a blackbird with the bill of a finch.
    • a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “(please specify the chapter or poem)”, in M[abel] L[oomis] Todd and M[illicent] T[odd] Bingham, editors, Bolts of Melody, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1945, page 330:
      Lethe in my flower / Of which they who drink / In the fadeless orchards / Hear the bobolink.
    • 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 297:
      The San's feeders were mobbed with sparrows and jays and the starlings that had just begun to colonize the area, but there was no sign of robin, bobolink or oriole.

Synonyms

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Translations

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Further reading

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