robin redbreastn.
/ˌrɒbɪn ˈrɛdbrɛst/, U.S. /ˌrɑbən ˈrɛdˌbrɛst/ I. In the names of birds.
1. The European robin, Erithacus rubecula. Cf. redbreast n. 1a, robin n.1 2a, Robert n.1 1.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Turdinae > [noun] > genus Erithacus > erithacus rubecula (robin)
ruddockOE
redbreasta1425
robineta1425
Robertc1430
robin redbreasta1525
robinc1550
Robin ruddock1554
Robin ruck1555
cock robin1710
robin breastie1824
a1525 (c1448) R. Holland Bk. Howlat l. 647 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 115 Robyn redbrest nocht ran Bot Raid as a hensman.
a1529 J. Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe (?1545) sig. B.iiv Robyn Redbrest He shall be the preest The Requiem masse to synge.
1550 R. Crowley One & Thyrtye Epigrammes sig. Cviv When the short dayes begyn to be colde Robiredbrest wil come home to ye.
1612 J. Webster White Divel sig. Lv The Robin-Red-brest and the wren..with leaues and flowres doe couer The friendlesse bodies of vnburied men.
1683 T. Tryon Way to Health 448 The Raven as unfit for food,..and the pretty Robbin-Red-Breast for its Innocency, are very seldom killed.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 134. ⁋2 Hearing by Chance of your Worship's great Humanity towards Robin-Redbreasts and Tom Tits.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 314 Among slender billed birds, he enumerates the thrush,..the redstart, the robin red-breast.
1826 W. Scott Woodstock III. iv. 84 Robin-redbreast, whose chirruping song was heard among the bushes.
1878 J. T. Reid Art Rambles in Highlands & Islands iv. 55 A lame robin redbreast..came and sat on a bush opposite the door till he was fed.
1904 F. S. Mathews Field Bk. Wild Birds & their Music 246 Our Robin is unrelated to the English Robin Redbreast.
1958 E. T. Gilliard Living Birds of World 336/2 Its well-known cousin, the six-inch Robin Redbreast of the Old World..also has a bright reddish brown breast.
2008 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 5 Apr. 4 I have a beautiful robin redbreast and various other birds.
2.
a. North American. The American robin, Turdus migratorius. Cf. redbreast n. 1b, robin n.1 3.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Turdinae > [noun] > genus Turdus (thrush) > turdus migratorius (American robin)
red-bird1649
robin redbreast1696
robin1703
redbreast1772
red-breasted thrush1772
red thrush1827
1696 S. Sewall Diary 4 Jan. (1878) I. 242 Some say they saw a Robin-Redbrest to-day.
1774 P. V. Fithian Jrnl. & Lett. (1900) 232 Not a bird, except now & then Robbin-Redbreast is heard to sing in this Feverish Month.
1832 T. Flint Hist. & Geogr. Mississippi Valley (ed. 2) I. 70 The robin-redbreast in the northern Atlantic country is, more than any other, the bird of orchards and gardens.
1876 J. Ingelow Compl. Poems 26 When Robin-redbreast sings, We think on budding springs.
1909 A. D. Cameron New North 68 Little Robin Red-breast..has successively lived through three tags, ‘Turdus migratorius’, ‘Planesticus migratorius’, ‘Turdus canadensis’.
1949 Hobbies Oct. 155/1 Robin Redbreast—most familiar of North American birds—has thrived as man's close neighbor.
2007 Virginian-Pilot (Va.) (Nexis) 11 Nov. F1 With an orange red breast, dark gray back and almost black head, robin redbreast is a familiar friend.
b. Australian. Any of several flycatchers of the family Petroicidae, esp. the scarlet robin, Petroica multicolor. Cf. robin n.1 4b.
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1845 C. Griffith Present State & Prospects Port Phiilip 127 The robin-redbreast is worthy of particular mention. It is a beautiful little bird, with black and grey body, and bright scarlet breast.
1892 F. Hughes My Childhood in Austral. 91 The robin red-breast is a very lovely little bird.
1948 P. J. Hurley Red Cedar 160 They are robin red breast, rose and hooded robins. Few birds are more loved.
2008 Hobart Mercury (Tasmania) (Nexis) 13 Sept. (Weekend section) 9 The flame and scarlet robins might be Australian ‘robin redbreasts’ but they are in fact a form of Australian flycatcher.
c. Caribbean. The Jamaican tody, Todus todus. Cf. robin n.1 4c.
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Coraciiformes (kingfisher, etc.) > [noun] > family Alcedinidae > unspecified and miscellaneous types
kingfisher1611
tody1773
robin1826
kinghunter1837
robin redbreast1847
malachite kingfisher1903
1847 P. H. Gosse & R. Hill Birds of Jamaica 73 Green Tody... Always conspicuous from its bright grass-green coat, and crimson velvet gorget, it..has received a favourite name, that of Robin Redbreast.
1960 J. Bond Birds W. Indies 143 Jamaican Tody. Todus todus. Local names: Robin; Robin Redbreast.
d. Scottish (Shetland). The wren, Troglodytes troglodytes. Cf. robin n.1 4d. Now rare.From the popular belief that the wren is the robin's wife.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Troglodytidae > genus Troglodytes > species troglodytes (wren)
wrenc725
little kingc1450
Our Lady's hena1529
jenny wren1648
regulus1678
tope1813
staga1825
kitty1825
feather-poke1831
robin1837
robin redbreasta1873
jenny1881
St. Kilda wren1884
a1873 H. L. Saxby Birds of Shetland (1874) 67 It appears that the name ‘Robin Redbreast’ is invariably applied there to the common Wren.
1913 H. K. Swann Dict. Names Brit. Birds 199 Robin Redbreast... Saxby says it is also a Shetland name for the Wren.
II. Other uses.
3. British slang. A police officer. Cf. redbreast n. 2. historical and with capital initials in later use.With reference to the red waistcoats worn by the Bow Street horse patrol.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman
truncheon officer1708
runner1735
horny1753
nibbing-cull1775
nabbing-cull1780
police officer1784
police constable1787
policeman1788
scout1789
nabman1792
nabber1795
pig1811
Bow-street officer1812
nab1813
peeler1816
split1819
grunter1823
robin redbreast1824
bulky1828
raw (or unboiled) lobster1829
Johnny Darm1830
polis1833
crusher1835
constable1839
police1839
agent1841
johndarm1843
blue boy1844
bobby1844
bluebottle1845
copper1846
blue1848
polisman1850
blue coat1851
Johnny1851
PC1851
spot1851
Jack1854
truncheonist1854
fly1857
greycoat1857
cop1859
Cossack1859
slop1859
scuffer1860
nailerc1863
worm1864
Robert1870
reeler1879
minion of the law1882
ginger pop1887
rozzer1888
nark1890
bull1893
grasshopper1893
truncheon-bearer1896
John1898
finger1899
flatty1899
mug1903
John Dunn1904
John Hop1905
gendarme1906
Johnny Hop1908
pavement pounder1908
buttons1911
flat-foot1913
pounder1919
Hop1923
bogy1925
shamus1925
heat1928
fuzz1929
law1929
narker1932
roach1932
jonnop1938
grass1939
roller1940
Babylon1943
walloper1945
cozzer1950
Old Bill1958
cowboy1959
monaych1961
cozzpot1962
policeperson1965
woolly1965
Fed1966
wolly1970
plod1971
roz1971
Smokey Bear1974
bear1975
beast1978
woodentop1981
Five-O1983
dibble1990
Bow-street runner-
1824 Times 16 July 3/4 He would not be interrupted in his lawful occupation by any robin-red-breast (in allusion to the red waistcoats worn by the day police) in the kingdom.
1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk II. 173 The New Police Bill, by which raw lobsters were introduced in place of robin-red-breasts.
1885 L. Wingfield Barbara Philpot III. ii. 45 Vended by hawkers in the street under the noses of the robin-redbreasts.
1938 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 29 175 Now, all this happened in the days of the Bow Street men, the ‘Robin Redbreasts’.
1956 D. G. Browne Rise of Scotl. Yard vii. 70 Sidmouth brought in some of the Horse Patrole, the ‘Robin Redbreasts’, now under the control of the Home Office.
2000 A. Palmer East End (rev. ed.) v. 52 Neither these ‘Robin Redbreasts’ nor the..Bow Street Runners helped police the teeming back alleys in the East End.
4.
a. English regional. Also Robin redbreast's cushion. = robin's pincushion n. at robin n.1 Compounds 3b. Now rare.
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the world > plants > disease or injury > [noun] > gall or abnormal growth > on particular plants
oak-apple1440
bedeguar1578
sponge1608
oak-berry1626
oak nut1626
Aleppo gall1698
grape-gall1753
rose gall1753
oak galla1774
ear cockle1777
honeysuckle apple1818
sage-apple1832
robin's pincushion1835
oak spangle1836
robin's cushion1837
oak-wart1840
spangle1842
shick-shack1847
spangle-gall1864
tomato gall1869
Robin redbreast's cushion1878
knopper1879
trumpet-gall1879
spongiole1884
knot-gall1894
1878 Folk-lore Rec. 1 38 The excrescence often found upon the briar-rose, and called here in Sussex by the name of Robin Redbreast's Cushion.
1886 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester Robin red-breast, the red, mossy gall which grows upon the branches of the wild rose.
b. English regional. The red campion, Silene dioica. Cf. robin n.1 6. rare.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Caryophyllaceae (chickweeds and allies) > [noun] > campion and ragged robin
cow-rattle14..
campion1576
behen1578
crowsoap1578
white campion1578
catchfly1597
feather-top wild campion1597
frothy poppy1597
lime-wort1597
nonsuch1597
sea campion1597
spattling poppy (also campion)1597
Greek rose1601
lychnis1601
knap-bottle1640
moss pink1641
Lobel's catchfly1664
red robin1678
moss campion1690
red campion1728
round robin1741
Silene1751
Nottingham catchfly1762
silenal1836
Robin Hood1844
thunder-flower1853
gunpowder weed1860
sea-catchfly1864
robin redbreast1880
poppy1886
thunderbolt1886
rattleweed1893
cancer1896
bladder-campion-
1880 Monthly Packet Oct. 409 Lychnis diurna—Bobby's Eyes, Hants;..Jack-in-the-Hedge, Salop; Robin Redbreast.
1886 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names Robin Redbreast. Lychnis diurna, Sibth.—Cornw. (Truro).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1525