owlheadn.
/ˈaʊlhɛd/, U.S. /ˈaʊlˌhɛd/ Now rare.† 1. English regional. A cast in rock of the semicircular shell of a fossil bivalve, Productus giganteus (family Productidae). Obsolete. rare.
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1854 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca ii. 222 Internal casts of [the fossil bivalve] Producta gigantea are called ‘owl-heads’ by quarrymen in the North of England.
2. U.S. regional (chiefly north-eastern). The grey plover, Pluvialis squatarola. Now historical and rare.
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1888 G. Trumbull Names & Portraits Birds 192 In New Jersey at Pleasantville (Atlantic Co.), [the black-bellied plover is called] hollow-head; and again at Pleasantville, owl-head.
1955 Amer. Speech 30 181 Owlhead, for the black-bellied plover (N.J.), probably is only another of several names alluding to the large head of this species.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1854- servants' tax
- servantship
- servantships
- servation
- servator
- servatory
- serve
- serve a person heir to
- serve a person right
- serve a person's turn
- serve a turn
- serve a volunteer
- serve an apprenticeship
- serve an apprenticeship to
- serve and sue
- serve and volley
- serve apprenticeship
- serve at bar
- serve at the bar
- serve away
- serve etc right
- serve etc turn
- serve forth
- serve hard time
- serve heir to