warbler
(ˈwɔːblə(r))
[f. warble v.1 + -er1.]
1. a. One who, or something which, warbles or sings; a singer, songster.
| 1611 Cotgr., Gasouilleur, a warbler, chirper. 1633 Massinger Guardian iv. ii, And you Warbler, Keep your Windpipe moist, that you may not spit and hem, When you should make division. 1673 M. Stevenson Norf. Drollery 19 At her call, Comes Blackbird, Linit, Alph, Thrush, Nightingal, Melodious warblers. c 1750 Shenstone Elegy xiv. 20 Nor for the worthless bird of brighter plumes Would change the meanest warbler of my grove. 1818 Byron Juan Ded. iii, Your wish To supersede all warblers here below. 1833 Tennyson Dream Fair Women 5 Dan Chaucer, the first warbler. 1850 ‘Sylvanus’ Bye-lanes & Downs ii. 23 The sun had not yet risen, and all, save the warblers of the woods, was still. |
b. slang.
| 1823 ‘Jon Bee’ Dict. Turf, Warblers, singers who go about to ‘free and easy’ meetings, to chaunt for pay, for grog, or for the purpose of putting off benefit-tickets. |
c. slang. A female singer.
| 1946 B. Treadwell Big Bk. Swing 125/2 Warbler, girl singer. 1961 Times 21 Nov. 13/2 Barbara Holt, making her stage debut, displayed the promise of an uncommon warbler. 1981 TV Picture Life Mar. 16/1 (caption) Regardless of where her love life leads, the warbler is very much in demand for films these days. |
d. colloq. A telephone which warbles. Cf. warble v.1 4 c.
| 1973 G. Moffat Deviant Death vii. 106 ‘I didn't hear a telephone, did you?’ ‘It's one of the new warblers.’ |
2. a. In the Old World: Any one of the numerous small plain-coloured singing-birds of the family Sylviinae, including the blackcap, white-throat, and others having names in which warbler is the second element, as garden-w., grasshopper-w., reed-warbler, sedge-w., willow-w., wood-w.
| 1773 Pennant Genera of Birds 35 Warblers. 1776 ― Brit. Zool. (ed. 4) I. 329 Dartford Warbler. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 183 Of the warblers in general. 1835 Jenyns Man. Brit. Vertebr. 104 Sylvia Suecica, Lath. (Blue-throated Warbler). Ibid. 108 Sylvia Atricapilla, Lath. (Black-cap Warbler). 1890 C. Dixon Ann. Bird Life 41 Of the five species of Warbler that stray here in the spring, three of them, the Aquatic Warbler, the Great Reed Warbler, and the Icterine Warbler, are regular visitors to France. |
b. In America: One of the small, usually bright-coloured, birds, with little power of song, of the family Mniotiltidae.
| 1783 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. ii. 482 Spotted Yellow Warbler, Le Figuier brun de Canada. 1808–14 A. Wilson Amer. Ornith. (1831) II. 162 Sylvia autumnalis, Wilson.—Autumnal Warbler. 1871 Burroughs Wake-Robin viii. (1895) 207 Audubon figures and describes over forty different warblers. Ibid., The cerulean warbler, said to be abundant about Niagara; and the mourning ground warbler, which I have found breeding about the head-waters of the Delaware. 1872 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 93 Helmitherus vermivorus. Worm-eating Warbler. |
c. In Australia and New Zealand: A bird of the genera Gerygone, Malurus, and others.
| 1790 J. White's Jrnl. Voy. N.S. Wales App. 256 Superb Warblers. 1889 Parker Catal. N.Z. Exhib. 119 (Morris) Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) also belongs to an Australian genus. 1896 F. G. Aflalo Nat. Hist. Australia 136 The Wrens and Warblers—chiefly Maluri, with the allied Amytis and Stipiturus—are purely Australian. |
3. Sc. A group of grace-notes on the bagpipe.
| 1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 235/2 The players introduce among the simple notes of the tune a kind of appoggiatura, consisting of a great number of rapid notes of peculiar embellishment, which they term warblers. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xxv. 1894 J. A. Steuart In Day of Battle viii, He owned I was no hand at the warblers. |
4. Little Warbler: app. the title of a song-book.
‘The Little Warbler. Scotch Songs’ is the title of a chap-book of about 1820. There may have been other books with the same title; the British Museum has three collections of songs called ‘The Warbler’, 1760 (?), 1772, and 1840 (?).
| 1840 Thackeray Barber Cox Sept., A vast number of things..such as a ball of string, a piece of candle, a comb, a whip-lash, a little warbler. 1848 ― Van. Fair v, He..bought him..presents of knives,..toffee, Little Warblers, and romantic books. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as warbler tribe; warbler-like adj.; † warbler thrush, a North American olive-brown thrush.
| 1817 Stephens in Shaw's Gen. Zool. X. 197 Warbler Thrush (Turdus motacilla). 1894 R. B. Sharpe Hand-bk. Birds Gt. Brit. I. 102 The mottled Warbler-like eggs which are often found. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 9 Dec. 10/1 With..all the lesser warbler tribe to bear them company. |