ˈRobin ˈredbreast
[Cf. Robin1 and redbreast.]
1. a. The European redbreast or robin (Erithacus rubecula), usually as a proper name, but also with a and pl.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 647 Robyn Redbrest nocht ran, Bot raid as a hensman. a 1529 Skelton P. Sparowe 399 Robyn redbrest, He shall be the preest The requiem masse to synge. 1550 Crowley Epigr. 863 When the short dayes begyn to be colde, robinredbrest will come home to ye. 1612 Webster White Devil v. (Routledge) 45/2 The robin-red⁓breast and the wren..with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 448 The Raven as unfit for food,..and the pretty Robbin-Red-Breast for its Innocency, are very seldom killed. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 134 ¶2 Hearing by Chance of your Worship's great Humanity towards Robin-Redbreasts and Tom Tits. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 314 Among slender billed birds, he enumerates the thrush,..the red⁓start, the robin red-breast. 1826 Scott Woodst. xxviii, Robin-red-breast, whose chirruping song was heard among the bushes. 1862 All Year Round 13 Sept. 9 The infliction..is hard upon the innocent traveller, who has been brought up to respect robin redbreasts. |
b. dial. (See quots. and cf. Robin1 6 d.)
| 1878 Folk-Lore Rec. I. 38 The excrescence often found upon the briar-rose, and called here in Sussex by the name of Robin Redbreast's Cushion. 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Robin red-breast, the red, mossy gall which grows upon the branches of the wild rose. |
c. dial. The red campion, Lychnis diurna.
| 1886 Britten & Holland Plant-Names. |
d. U.S. = Robin n.1 3.
| 1696 S. Sewall Diary 4 Jan. (1878) I. 242 Some say they saw a Robin-Redbrest to-day. 1865 Atlantic Monthly May 517/1 Shortly after Robin-Redbreast .. [arrives] the Golden-Winged Woodpecker. 1949 Hobbies Oct. 155/1 Robin Redbreast—most familiar of North American birds—has thrived as man's close neighbor. |
2. slang. A Bow Street runner. Cf. redbreast 2.
| 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk II. 173 The New Police Bill, by which raw lobsters were introduced in place of robin-red-breasts. 1885 Wingfield Barb. Philpot III. ii. 45 Vended by hawkers in the street under the noses of the robin-redbreasts. |