mourning dove
1
6.2
- noun
- /ˈmɔrnɪŋ dʌv/
- US
:
tórtola luto
- In the quiet of the park, I heard the soft cooing of a mourning dove perched on a branch.
- coo of a mourning dove
- cooing of a mourning dove
- mourning dove season
Examples
-
From the far field, she could hear the mourning dove and meadowlark.
Fiction book (1994) -
A feather of a mourning dove drifted down and lit on Wentworth's nose and clung there, ticklishly.
Fiction book (2002) -
Through the still morning air come the soft throat-clearings of mourning doves.
Fiction book (1993) -
The mourning dove moans and keens, "Please do not eat them all, all my chicks."
Fiction book (1997) -
Suddenly, a flock of mourning doves rose out of the grass with the snap and flutter of a dozen Victorian ladies opening their fans.
Fiction book (2002) -
There was the lyric coo of a mourning dove, the chitter-chitter of late-season insects.
Fiction book (1995) -
He lay there, watching the floating dust, listening to the coo of the mourning doves that roosted in the eaves.
Fiction book (1997) -
He'll wait out here in the peace, concentrating on the mockingbird and the mourning doves, on the scraping of grasshoppers in the dry field across the narrow dirt road.
Fiction book (1994) -
The mourning doves grieved in the tallest oaks, and their sad, droning utterance repeated over and over, by its very monotony.
Fiction book (1995) -
As the sun began to rise, the familiar sound of a mourning dove filled the air with its gentle calls.
Synonyms
58
1.0
A small white pigeon often shown as a sign of peace
A common North American dove with a soft, sad cooing call
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'mourning dove' literally combines 'mourning' (expressing grief or sadness) with 'dove' (a small bird), so its meaning — a dove characterized by a mournful call — is directly inferable from the constituents. This modifier+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and names a species, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand the referent.
Etymology
Mourning dove — The name mourning dove comes from the bird's soft, low coo that reminded people of mourning, and the word dove simply names the bird. So, the name points to the bird's 'sad' sound.