pigeon
/ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.61 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who is a target or victim of a confidence game.
Canadian usage; American usage; Countable; Informal
Example Sentences
- "Kalb rushed to the airport and found a "pigeon" to take out the film: an American woman headed for London."
- "At this point, all the commercial airports in Pakistan were closed. The only way to get film out was over land. John promptly hired me to be what was then known in the business as a "Pigeon," and installed me in a comfortable room in his hotel. […] I would then hand-carry his film out of the country, via Peshawar, the Khyber Pass, through the Kabul Gorge, and up to Kabul, Afghanistan, where I would meet a BBC courier and transfer the film bag."
- "It's their pigeon."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin pīpiō Proto-Indo-European *-ōder. Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.? Latin -ō Latin pipio Old French pyjonbor. Middle English pygeoun English pigeon Inherited from Middle English pygeoun, borrowed from Old French pyjon, inherited from Late Latin pīpiōnem (“chirping bird”), derived from Latin pīpiāre (“to chirp”), of imitative origin. Partly displaced native English dove.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/
- British English: /ˈpɪ.dʒɪn/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
blue pigeon flyer
Bresse pigeon
carrier-pigeon
clay pigeon
cock pigeon
crown pigeon
cut the pigeon wing
domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica or