curlew
noun
cur·lew ˈkər-(ˌ)lü 
ˈkərl-(ˌ)yü
ˈkərl-(ˌ)yü plural curlews or curlew
: any of various largely brownish chiefly migratory birds (especially genus Numenius) having long legs and a long slender down-curved bill and related to the sandpipers and snipes
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web That’s less than a third of the lifespan of a curlew. 
Ali Smith, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 Actually, the story’s already pretty strange by the time our medieval heroine, a girl with a bird — specifically, and significantly, a curlew — on her shoulder and a smithy’s tools in hand, mysteriously appears in our present-day heroine’s house. Washington Post, 4 May 2022 The study was the culmination of years of work that began in 2009 with the dead curlew and expanded to include surveys of dead raptors and snakes in one conservation area in southwestern Idaho. Christine Peterson, Animals, 11 Dec. 2020 It’s more than people responding to curlews attacking them, defending their young. Kevin Davenport, idahostatesman, 18 June 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 See More
Ali Smith, Harper’s Magazine , 25 May 2022 Actually, the story’s already pretty strange by the time our medieval heroine, a girl with a bird — specifically, and significantly, a curlew — on her shoulder and a smithy’s tools in hand, mysteriously appears in our present-day heroine’s house. Washington Post, 4 May 2022 The study was the culmination of years of work that began in 2009 with the dead curlew and expanded to include surveys of dead raptors and snakes in one conservation area in southwestern Idaho. Christine Peterson, Animals, 11 Dec. 2020 It’s more than people responding to curlews attacking them, defending their young. Kevin Davenport, idahostatesman, 18 June 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 In Finland, for example, the Northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew have usually built their ground nests on barley fields after farmers have sown their crops in the spring. Author: Livia Albeck Ripka, Brad Plumer, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Apr. 2018 See More Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Anglo-French curleu, of imitative origin
First Known Use
14th century, in the meaning defined above