gray catbird
- noun
- /ɡreɪ ˈkætbɜrd/
- US
:
mirlo gris
- In the spring, the gray catbird sang beautifully from the top of a tree.
Examples
-
A slate-gray catbird emitted its lonely mewing call to the evening.
Fiction book (2000) -
I spotted a gray catbird foraging for insects in the garden yesterday.
-
The gray catbird is often seen near bushes where it can hide easily.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A North American songbird whose call sounds like a cat meowing
A North American songbird that makes a sound like a cat's mew
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'gray' describes the color of the noun 'catbird'. Color + animal noun combinations are highly compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer it refers to a catbird that is gray in color.
Etymology
The name gray catbird comes from the bird's plain gray color and a call that sounds like a cat's 'mew'. That's why people call it a catbird and the name helps you remember its color and its catlike song.