Word info Synonyms Antonyms

shrike

Speech parts

1. shrike - Noun

2. shrike - Verb

Meaning

Any one of numerous species of oscinine birds of the family Laniidae, having a strong hooked bill, toothed at the tip. Most shrikes are insectivorous, but the common European gray shrike (Lanius excubitor), the great northern shrike (L. borealis), and several others, kill mice, small birds, etc., and often impale them on thorns, and are, on that account called also butcher birds. See under Butcher.

Source: Webster's dictionary

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Examples

I have seen one shrike occupy himself for hours in sticking up on thorns, a number of small fishes that the fishermen had thrown on the shore. The fishes dried up and decayed. John Bachman

I never found either this or the Northern Shrike return to such prey for food. I have seen them alight on the same thorn bush afterwards, but never made any use of this kind of food. John Bachman

When the mantis hunts the locust, he forgets the shrike that's hunting him. Chinese Proverb

A varied group of individuals are on a pilgrimage to solicit a kind of demon-god called the Shrike on the planet Hyperion in a universe on the edge of the apocalypse. Source: Internet

Carroll's book appendices suggest it is the past tense of the verb to 'outgribe', connected with the old verb to 'grike' or 'shrike', which derived 'shriek' and 'creak' and hence 'squeak'. Source: Internet

It was originally developed by Texas Instruments as a replacement for the AGM-45 Shrike and AGM-78 Standard ARM system. Source: Internet

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