whippoorwill

• whip-poor-will, whippowill, whip-o-will, whip-o'-will

Imitative of its note.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɪp.ɚˌwɪl/, /ˈwɪp.ɚˌwɪl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪp.əˌwɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: whip‧poor‧will

whippoorwill (plural whippoorwills)

1. A nocturnal insectivorous bird of North America (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus), a type of nightjar, named after its characteristic call.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 55:

     “Seems like I heard a whippoorwill callinʼ, and I thought to myself, Go on away from here, weʼll whip ole Will when we find him.”

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) The distinctive call of the above bird.

   The bird sang his whippoorwills all night.

   • 2023 December 12, Timothy C. Baker, Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories‎^[1], MIT Press, →ISBN:

     From across the road a bird sang 'Whippoorwill, whippoorwill!'

   • 1959, Thomas William Duncan, Big River, Big Man‎^[2]:

     Somewhere in the darkness a few cold-sounding frogs lamented the lost summer, and the bird which the Chippewa called muck-a-wiss sang whippoorwill.

   • 1857, Grace Greenwood, The Little Pilgrim‎^[3], page 91:

     For I'm sure 'tis a bird that now sings 'Whippoorwill, Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill!'

• eastern whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus)
• Mexican whippoorwill (Antrostomus arizonae)

• chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis)

• “whippoorwill”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.