| / English Dictionary |
FALCON
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("falcon" is a kind of...):
hawk (diurnal bird of prey typically having short rounded wings and a long tail)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "falcon"):
Falco peregrinus; peregrine; peregrine falcon (a widely distributed falcon formerly used in falconry)
Falco rusticolus; gerfalcon; gyrfalcon (large and rare Arctic falcon having white and dark color phases)
Falco tinnunculus; kestrel (small Old World falcon that hovers in the air against a wind)
American kestrel; Falco sparverius; kestrel; sparrow hawk (small North American falcon)
Falco columbarius; merlin; pigeon hawk (small falcon of Europe and America having dark plumage with black-barred tail; used in falconry)
Falco subbuteo; hobby (small Old World falcon formerly trained and flown at small birds)
caracara (any of various long-legged carrion-eating hawks of South America and Central America)
Holonyms ("falcon" is a member of...):
Falconidae; family Falconidae (a family of birds of the order Falconiformes)
Derivation:
falcon (hunt with falcons)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Hunt with falcons
Example:
The tribes like to falcon in the desert
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Hypernyms (to "falcon" is one way to...):
hunt; hunt down; run; track down (pursue for food or sport (as of wild animals))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
In the summer they like to go out and falcon
Derivation:
falcon (diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight)
falconer (a person who breeds and trains hawks and who follows the sport of falconry)
falconry (the art of training falcons to hunt and return)
Context examples:
Its shrill and piercing cries drew all eyes upon it, and, as it came nearer, a dark spot which circled above it resolved itself into a peregrine falcon, which hovered over its head, poising itself from time to time, and watching its chance of closing with its clumsy quarry.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A roar of applause burst from the crossbowmen; but at the instant that the bolt struck its mark old Johnston, who had stood listlessly with arrow on string, bent his bow and sped a shaft through the body of the falcon.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All along by the sedgy banks of the rivers long lines of pages led their masters' chargers down to water, while the knights themselves lounged in gayly-dressed groups about the doors of their pavilions, or rode out, with their falcons upon their wrists and their greyhounds behind them, in quest of quail or of leveret.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boarhunte, or Sir Bernard Brocas, of Roche Court, say if they saw such a thing—or, perhaps, even the King's own Majesty himself, who often has ridden past this way, and who loves his falcons as he loves his sons?
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She held her left hand in front of her, covered with a red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very fluffy and bedraggled, which she smoothed and fondled as she walked.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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