magpie
/ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.90 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A superficially similar Australian bird, Gymnorhina tibicen, in the family Artamidae.
noun
In the sport of fullbore target rifle, the third circle on a target, between the inner and outer.
British usage
noun
A pattern resembling the pied plumage of a magpie.
Example Sentences
- "Not only is Mr. Booker a voracious magpie (who does not always acknowledge the sources of his ideas), but he also turns out to be an annoyingly biased and didactic one."
- "Kitty and I were engaged. The next day I met those accursed “magpie” Jhampanies at the back of Jakko, and, moved by some passing sentiment of pity, stopped to tell Mrs. Wessington everything."
- "The worst part of my experience in this magpie livery was yet to come, for I was to appear in it the next day at church."
- "The little rail-enclosed plots that lay between the pavements and the hotels were magpied with torn paper […]"
- "[…] she stood at the window and saw the lake blue with spring and a few patches of snow that magpied the hills."
- "[…] they looked down upon Highmost Redmanhey, timber and plaster magpied by the moon, and a lamp in the window of the room where Susan lay."
Etymology
From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Australian magpie Cracticus tibicen
Gymnorhina tibicen
azure-winged magpie
bell-magpie
black-billed magpie
black magpie
blue magpie
Eurasian magpie