flightless bird
2
3.7
- noun
- /ˈflaɪt.ləs bɜrd/
:
ave no voladora
- In the 1960s, New Zealanders renamed the brown, fuzzy-skinned fruit after their national symbol, a native flightless bird.
- a large flightless bird
What large flightless bird has eyeballs bigger than its brain?
- What large flightless bird has eyeballs bigger than its brain?
- And do you know what has happened to most flightless birds?
Examples
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These giant flightless birds, similar in appearance to ostriches and emus but without vestigial wings, were once the world's largest birds.
Blog text (11) -
The ostrich is a large, flightless bird native to Africa.
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I watch him cross the road like a small flightless bird from a National Geographic special.
Fiction book (1991) -
What large flightless bird has eyeballs bigger than its brain?
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They're just a bunch of flightless birds at the bottom of the world.
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A large, noisy crowd watches the graceful, flightless birds.
Fiction book (2000) -
The kiwi, a small flightless bird, is an important symbol of New Zealand.
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Many flightless birds, like the emu, have adapted to life on the ground.
How Aerial
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a bird unable to fly' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'flightless' (unable to fly) with 'bird' (an avian animal). This compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Flightless bird is a simple name made from flightless and bird. Picture a bird with small wings and strong legs that stays on the ground instead of flying, so it means 'a bird that cannot fly'.