wagtail (wagtal)

[ Quake tail, or Pied Wagtail ( Motacilla yarrelli). yarrelli. (See Motacilla.) (b) The closely related genus Budytes comprises among others the common blue-headed yellow wagtail, B. flava, of very wide distribution in the Old World and found in Alaska. 2. Some similar bird. In the United States the name frequently into two birds of the genus eur us, the common water-thrush and the large-billed water-thrush, S. nævius and S. motacilla, members of the family Mniotil tidæ, or American warblers. See cut under Seiurus. 3t. A term of familiarity or contempt. Wagtail , salute them all; they are friends. 4. A pert person. Middle ton, Michael mas Term, iii. 1. IMG:content-1995.png:[blocks in formation] 6802 a bird so named by Latham in 1783 from a bird described by Sonnini in 1766 from Luzon: not well identified, but supposed to be the wagtail distributed over most of Asia, with a host of synonyms, from which M. leucopsis is selected as the onym by late authority. — Common wagtail of England, the pied wagtail. - Field-wagtail, a yellow wagtail. -Garden-wagtail, the Indian wagtail.-Gray headed yellow wagtail, Budytes virid is.-Gray wagtail, Motacilla melanope, or boarula, or sulphurea: more fully called gray water - wagtail (after Edwards, 1758), and also yellow water - wagtail by Albin (1738-40). - Green wagtail, a bird so described by Brown in 1775, and since commonly called Budytes virid is or B. cine reo cap ill us, ranging from Scand in a via to South Africa and the Malay countries. -Hudson i an wagtail (of Latham, 1801), the common titlark of North America, Anthus pennsylvanicus or ludovi cianus, originally described and figured by Edwards in 1760 as the "lark from Pensil van i a."-Indian wagtail, Nemo ricola or Nemorivaga indica, now Limo nid rom us indicus, a true wagtail, but of a separate wide-ranging in Asia and most of the islands zoologically related to that continent. - Pied wagtail, Motacilla lugubris or yarrelli, the commonest wagtail of Great Britain. - Tschutschi wagtailt, the gray wagtail. Pennant, 1785. - Wagtail fantail, wagtail flycatcher, a true flycatcher of Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, etc., with fifteen different New Latin names, among which Rhipidura or Wagtail Flycatcher ( Rhipidura tricolor). Sauloprocta tricolor or motacilloides is most used. It is 74 inches long, and chiefly black and white in coloration, thus resembling one of the pied wagtails. Also called black fantail. Water wagtail. See water - wagtail. White wagtail, Motacilla alba, or another of this type. -Wood-wagtail, the common gray wagtail: sometimes mistaken for something else, and put in a genus Calobates, as C. sulphurea. Webster, 1890. - Yellow wagtail, Budytes ray i, or another of this type. wagtail (wag'tāl), v. i. [ A payr of busie chattering Pies, From bush to bush wag - tayling here and there. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Trophies. wagwant (wag'wônt), n. Same as wag -wanton. wag-wanton (wag'won-ton), n. The quaking gra , Briza media . [Prov. Eng.] wag-wit (wag' wit), n. A wag; a would-be wit. All the wag - wits in the highway are grinning in applause of the ingenious rogue. Steele , Spectator, No. 354. under panda. wail bright-scarlet arils of its seeds. Its bark is the officinal euonymus, credited with cholagogic and laxative properties. - 2. The bearberry of the Pacific United States, Rhamnus Purshiana, the source of cascara sagrada, perhaps so called from its medicinal affinity to the former.-3. The winged elm, Ulmus alata, a small tree with corky winged branches, found southward in the United States. The wood is unwedgeable, and is largely used for hubs, blocks, etc. The name has also been applied to Tilia heterophylla (see Tilia ) and to the Japanese quince (which see, under quincel ). Also written waahoo (this form being sometimes used distinctively in sense 1) and whahoo . waidt, waidet. Obsolete spellings of the pret erit and past participle of weigh1 . waif (waf), n. and a. [Formerly also waive (from the plural), also waift (see waive, n., waift ); IMG:content-1996.png:[graphic] Cotgrave, 1611. Rolling in his mind Old waifs of rhyme. Tennyson, The Brook. 2. In law: ( a ) Goods found of which the owner is not known. Of wardes and of war demotes, wayues and strayues. Piers Plowman (C), i. 92. ( b ) Such goods as a thief, when pursued, throws away to prevent being apprehended. Waifs... are goods stolen, and waved or thrown away by the thief in his flight, for fear of being apprehended. Black stone, Com., I. viii. 3. A wanderer; one who is lost; a neglected, homele wretch: applied also to beasts. Virtue and vice had bound'ries in old time;... 'Twas hard perhaps on here and there a waif , Desirous to return, and not receiv'd. Cowper , Task, iii. 80. Oh a' ye pious, godly flocks,. Wha now will keep ye frae the fox,... Or wha will tent the waifs and crocks About the dykes! Burns, The Twa Herds. 4. Same as weft or waft. The officer who first discovers it [a whale] sets a waif (a small flag) in his boat, and gives chase. C. M. Scammon , Marine Mammals, p. 25. Masthead waif, a light pole, six or eight feet long, with a hoop covered with canvas at the end: used by whalemen in signaling boats. Compare waft , n., 4. II. a . Vagabond; worthle ; ignoble; inferior. Also waff . [Scotch.] And the Lord King forbids that any waif (i. e. vagabond) or unknown ("uncuth") man be entertained anywhere except in a borough, and there only for one night, unle he or his horse be detained there by sickne so that an e oign [valid excuse by reason of sickne or infirmity] can be shown. Laws of Hen . II ., quoted in Ribton-Turner's [Vagrants and Vagrancy, p. 26. And wull and waif for eight lang years They sail'd upon the sea. Rosmer Hafmand (Child's Ballads, I. 253). masthead waif is made fast. IMG:content-1997.png:[graphic] hammed an reformer, who opposed all practices not sanctioned by the Koran. His succe ors formed a powerful dominion, whose chief seat was in Nejd in central Arabia. They were overthrown by Ibrahim Pasha in 1818, but afterward regained much of their former power in central Arabia. Also Wahabite. A sect of Muhammadan puritans, known as Wahabis , who affect a strict and ascetic way of life, such as prevailed in the time of the Prophet, and denounce all commentaries on the Koran, and all such modern innovations as the worship of relics. J. T. Wheeler, Short Hist. India, p. 668. Wahabiism (wä-häʼbē-izm), n. [ Wahabi + -ism.] The doctrines, principles, or practices of the Wahabis. W. G. Palgrave .