woodpecker

English

Etymology

From wood +‎ pecker. Compare Middle English wod spek (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodehake (“woodpecker”), Middle English wodewale (“woodpecker”). Displaced speight.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) enPR: wo͝odʹpĕkər, IPA(key): /ˈwʊdpɛkə/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (US) enPR: wo͝odʹpĕ'kər, IPA(key): /ˈwʊdˌpɛkɚ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: wood‧peck‧er

Noun

woodpecker (plural woodpeckers)

  2. Any bird of species-rich family Picidae, with a strong pointed beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89:
      On its summit towered aloft the fir tree which has often been referred to, like a mighty mast, full of woodpeckers' holes.
    • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 19:
      His skin was scarlet like the head of the green woodpecker.
    • 1928 August, Outram Bangs, James L. Peters, “Birds Collected by Dr. Joseph F. Rock in Western Kansu and Eastern Tibet”, in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy‎[1], volume LXVIII, number 7, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, →OCLC, page 333:
      An adult female of this rare woodpecker was taken at 6,000 feet in April 1925 near Chingchuan in the forests of northern Szechuan.
    • 1984, Virginia Wildlife, volume 45, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries:
      Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes.
  3. (military slang) A Type 92 heavy machine gun.

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