land rail
- noun
- UK
:
raíl de tierra
- We heard the distinctive call of the land rail hidden in the tall grass.
Examples
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The land rail is most active at dusk during the spring and summer.
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Conservationists are working to protect the habitat of the land rail in Eastern Europe.
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Look at that land rail!
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The land rail is known for its distinctive call.
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Conservationists are working to protect the habitat of the land rail in Eastern Europe.
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The land rail is most active at dusk during the spring and summer.
-
We heard the distinctive call of the land rail hidden in the tall grass.
Synonyms
A small brown bird that lives in fields and makes a loud rough call
A shy brown bird that lives in grain fields and makes a loud rough call
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward noun–noun compound where 'land' specifies the habitat and 'rail' names the bird; the meaning 'a rail that lives in fields/land' is directly derivable from the parts. Such habitat-based compounds are common cross-linguistically and follow regular composition patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the intended bird meaning.
Etymology
Land rail comes from a simple picture: a rail (a small, shy bird) that lives on the land in fields rather than in water. People saw these birds hidden in corn and long grass, so the name came to mean the 'ground bird' you find in meadows and grain fields.
